#and we have seen that security for Chris time and time again | Explore Tumblr Posts and Blogs

lyramundana · 9 months

Note

Hey, Mate. How are u? I've just seen your yandere Chan and changbin headcanons and I really like it! Can you please do a yandere skz reaction where their crush likes someone else?

Have a beautiful day! 💛

Thank you, mi amor!💖

YANDERE! STRAY KIDS REACTION: THEIR DARLING LIKES SOMEONE ELSE

CHRISTOPHER BANG

Oh well, we start hard already

We've already established previously that, out of the group, he's the most likely to turn yandere in real life. The divine @whatudowhennooneseesyou explained it in her blog before, and if she says it it must be be true, so

forgetting my short fangirl moment there . He got close to his Darling by showing her only his good sides and presenting himself like a friendly, reliable guy that she could count on for everything. He introduced himself into her life smoothly, carving his place in her routine while discreetly removing the "obstacles" that annoyed him. He won her trust quickly enough by forcing situations where his Darling got to see him as her knight in shining armour and felt compelled to rely on him, slowly but surely growing more dependant of him.

If there's a virtue Christopher has in quantity, it's patience. He's ready to wait as long as needed until he gets what he wants, and he's also the type to plan things in advance. So yeah, he's a fucking challenge to get away from.

He though he was doing great, that things were progressing like he planned, so imagine his utter shock when he learns his Darling has a crush on somebody else. She makes the mistake to tell him herself, asking for advice from a "good friend".

Once he gets over the initial loss of words, he's pissed. Very pissed. He's so fucking mad that, in the moment, he accidentally lets his nice guy act drop and loses control of his emotions in front of her. He starts an argument about it, claiming that person is not good enough and they're only going to hurt her, even if he barely knows them. Because who else could be worthy of Darling but himself? This mishap scares her and she ends up arguing back, running away from him in the end. He chastises himself for losing his cool like that later, furious that he ruined all of hard work into shaping a perfect image of him in her eyes. He can't stand the though of losing her, so he recomposes himself and already makes a plan to fix things.

First he gets in touch with her to apologize and make up for his behaviour. He's not sorry for the way he reacted, but he knows it scared her off and he knows that could prompt her to create distance, which he can't allow. Once again, he plays his charming and loving role to convince her, blaiming it on the stress of work and his desire to protect her, since most men are just pigs that would break her beautiful heart only he can do that. When she gets her to believe him, he grabs her hands in his and smiles, promising he'll help her the best way he can.

As soon as he's done recovering her trust, he's investigating that worthless piece of trash that has apparently stolen her affection. He has his contacts, so it doesn't take too long to get what he wants. He memorizes every single detail that he deems useful, just like he did with Darling, but this time is with entirely different purposes.

He's the type of "keep his enemies closer", so he'll befriend that person first and gain their trust, luring them into a false sense of security that it's more like a spider web, trapping them to be devoured without resistance. He gets that person to share secrets with him, things they regret, and Chris promises he won't ever tell a soul.

Some promises are meant to be broken.

He'll hold what he knows over their head to threaten them into staying away, or he'll straight up twist their words so his Darling can misinterpret them and feel betrayed/heartbroken. Obviously, he doesn't waste time into playing his role of brilliant hero and becomes her shoulder to cry on. This kind of validation is like oxygen for him, he can't get enough.

If the person proves to be persistant, he'll take more drastic measures and get rid of them permanently from Darling's life.

"It's okay, doll. It's not your fault. How could you've known they were so terrible? I never fully trusted them, but you seemed so happy and convinced. This is why you should listen to me. I only want the best for you.

LEE KNOW

We've also discussed him a bit in previous posts, but we'll profundize more here.

He's a passive yandere. The type to observe and "care" for his Darling from afar, unnoticed. Never intervening directly unless he absolutely has to. He'll be infatuated for years before gathering the courage to talk to you. But once he finally does, he'll win over his Darling quickly because he just seems to be so sync with her.

Truth is that, during all the time he's spent pining for her from the shadows, he has recopiled every bit of information about her he could get his hands on. Stalking, hacking, stealing personal belongings to treat as "treasures", you know it. While he didn't feel capable of havin a face to face interaction with her, he found comfort in observing her on her daily tasks. He knows her favourite food, color, animal, names of her friends and relatives, the perfume she uses, the places she frecuents and her special events.

His aproach would be slow at first, probably reaching out to her through social media (he has follows her in all of them and has a hacked all her accounts at some point) to chat about common interests, and after he feels they're both on friendly enough terms, he'll arrange a meeting in real life in one of her favourite places.

And because he's so in touch with everything that happens with her, he finds out about her crush before she even tells him. He goes through various phases, like sadness, heartbreak, rage. He just can't fit his head around such concept. Hasn't he proven himself enough to her? He has gone such lenghts to protect her, to get to know her, shaping himself to become the man of her dreams. Did he fail somewhere? What else he should do?

Then it dawns to him. It's not fault. Of course he followed all steps, did everything perfectly. By all accounts, his Darling should've fallen for him already. But maybe he chose the wrong aproach.

Maybe he needs to be more clear about his intentions.

He doesn't have Chris' discretion or long-game. He doesn't want to sit around and wait, he's done that enough for years.

He can't fake friendliness even if he tries, so his solution is kidnapping the person and threaten them to stay away from his Darling's life. If that doesn't work, he'll simply keep them hidden until their existence begins to be forgotten. He could also use them as a boxing bag to let out his frustations, who knows.

@whatsk-poppinhomies has the perfect description of yandere Minho, as I mentioned in another post. Go check it out!

SEO CHANGBIN

He's the egocentric type, to that makes him dangerous and scary but also predictable.

He lives off the praise and admiration from others. He's constantly showing off, fishing out all kind of validation to feed his ego. He also takes great care of his appareance and everything involved in the way he presents himself to the people.

Imagine the stereotypical jock of american movies that's popular and always being the centre of attention. That's him. He needs to feel eyes on him and be admired or else he'll get slightly insecure.

He'll try to catch his Darling's attention by doing exactly what he does to the rest: Showing off. He'll spoil the shit out her and do anything in his power to prove that he's the ideal partner. That no one is gonna treat her better than he does.

He'll become his Darling's slave, her biggest simp. He'll run up to her if he sees her in the same place as him and trail behind her back like an eager puppy, ready to bend himself backwards for her wishes.

Darling might feel overwhelmed by the constant attention and expensive gestures, but he has no plans on stopping, even if she asks him. Then he'll try to tune it down for her sake, but he's uncapable of stopping. He feels the urge to worship the ground she walks on.

He invades every space of her life with his boaming presence and craves himself into her routine, making sure he's the first and last face she sees everyday. If someone seems to "steal" the time that's rigthfully his, he'll drop that bubbly attitude quickly and become very intimidating. He's short but those muscles don't lie and he knows how to use them.

He has a high self-steem, so he's not jealous per se. However, he enjoys marking what's his and let other people know. He's prideful and has a similar disposition to Chris, in terms that they act more like dogs by how much they remind their partners and everyone else who they belong to.

He'll very, very angry if he finds out his Darling has a crush on someone that's not him. He feels his efforts weren't enough. He feels his ego is being questioned.

Unlike the previous two, he lacks self-control over emotions and he's rather impulsive, so he'll probably get into a fight with his rival or/and his Darling too.

He's a lot more direct about this matter. He'll use his position to berate Darling's crush until their reputation shatters or they decide to run away from the harassment. Changbin would be merciless.

Humiliations, fake rumours, pranks that leave injuries too serious to be just that. He'll be a manual bully, and a terrible one because no one dares to fight back. He's stronger than most, intimidating when he wants to, and has no problem sending someone to an hospital if they piss him off enough.

Eventually he'll drive his rival far from his Darling so he doesn't return, but if that doesn't work, well...he's ready to take permanent measures.

HWANG HYUNJIN

oh fuck here we go

Another dangerous one if he falls to the yandere side. He's as bad as Christopher, the kind of yandere that you can't escape alone and most likely you never will.

He's highly narcissistic and self-centered, but unlike Changbin, you won't ever see him coming. And while Chris' red flags can be more noticeable, Hyunjin's are invisible until it's too late.

He's a great actor, a manual manipulator and the perfect wattpad boyfriend. And by this I mean that every breath he takes is pure 🚩🚩🚩.

Seriously, if I had to pick, I'll run to Christopher Bang with no second though, because he's at least somewhat nice and truly feels like he cares.

Hyunjin doesn't. He believes he does, but that's not it.

He doesn't necessarily want to have a fairytale romance with his Darling. He simply wants to own her. Be the centre of her life and have her at his beck and call. Like I said, narcissistic.

He'll be drawn to someone that doesn't pay attention to him at first. He's used to have people worshipping the ground he walks on and surrounded by admirers, so seeing someone that treats him differently inmediatly picks his interest. And so he goes after her doing everything in his power to impress her and get her to look at him the same way most people do. He can't stand not having everyone infatuated by him.

He'll be the classic love interest that never takes no for an answer, ignores boundaries and takes the protagonist for granted. He thinks being allowed to be with him is an honor. He doesn't really care if the girl is comfortable with the situation, he's set on "fixing the anomaly".

As he begins to develop feelings for his Darling that go beyond winning this game of "hard to get", he starts to idealize her to unsane levels and even gives her traits that she doesn't actually have, just to fit his perfect narrative. If she doesn't have them, then he'll just have to make her, right?

He's charming and has a way with words, but his ego might cost him vision. He uses his image of "dream prince" to his advantage and plays the role for his Darling. He intends to turn her into his muse, a doll crafted by and for himself. He'll smoothly move her to change some aspects of herself to his preference.

His ego, eventually, confirms to be a burden. He's confident on his own perfection and he sees himself as the best option out of everyone and everything, so discovering his Darling apparently has a crush on someone is a mindfuck for him.

But he recovers quickly. As soon as the shock is over, it gets replaced with rage. For the first time in his life, he feels surpassed by someone. And he hates losing.

He'll sabotage every possible relationship Darling could have with anyone. If he can't have her, no one will. Simple. Until she realizes her only viable option is to be with him.

He's the type to ruin his Darling's life too and break her, so he can pick up the pieces and put them back how he wishes. Make her undesirable for other people so she thinks he's the only one that would ever love her.

HAN JISUNG

A nightmare for your emotional health. Dating him on a regular setting would be already a roller coaster, but as a yandere? You'll need fucking therapy and lots of patience, if you ever get out of it of course.

He relies heavily on emotional reactions and playing the victim card. He might actually believe he's a victim. He's impulsive too, but not like Changbin. He's another subtle manipulator, but unlike Hyunjin and Chris who use mental games, he hits you where it hurts.

He's prone to breakdowns and his mental health isn't the most stable at times, so he'll probably fall for his Darling when she helped him through one of his episodes and comforted them. As soon as he felt her warm hands and kind smile, boom. The path to obsession began.

He can be very insecure and distrusting, so he'll get jealous even when they're not even together yet. He thinks everyone that gets close to her has romantic interests and fears they'll take her away. He reflects his own feelings and thoughts unto other people.

Due to his insecurities, he believes everyone is better than him and so, if he lets Darling see other people than him, she'll surely reject him.

He's moody, so he'll go through periods where he's extremely clingy and others where he isolates himself. In both cases, however, he needs to know she's near or else he'll fall in a pit of panic. It reassures him.

He's very attached to his Darling, probably the most out of all. His dependency is completely toxic and it moves him to push people of her life so he can have her entirely for himself. He hates having to share her time and attention, so what's the solution?

Make sure he's the only person she has to talk to.

I think it's important to note that Jisung, while being emotional, is far from stupid. He's in fact one of the smartest in the group, so don't let the shy, soft persona fool you.

He's quick to pick on details, and that includes weaknesses. If he realizes his Darling can't stand seeing him sad or angry, you bet he'll use to his full benefit. He'll throw tantrums and randomly stop talking to her so she has to go after him to know what's wrong and "fix it". Seeing her give him so much attention comforts him.

If he catches on the fact that Darling has feelings for someone else, boy he'll go insane. You think his moodiness and bipolarity were bad before? Be prepared to see it ten times worse.

He wont' stand it, and he'll make that very clear. Another one that'll sabotage any type of relationships she has, but unlike Hyunjin, he'll never go as far as to hurt her or ruin her, because he adores her too much. No, all the damage is directed against those who try to steal her from him.

He'll play the victim card and pretend they were the ones who started the conflict, lying that they made fun of him or they're all speaking ill of her behind her back. He'll paint them as villains and his tears would do the rest.

If that doesn't work, he has no problem locking her up in his house. After all, this would allow him to have her everyday by his side like he wants.

He's highly dependant, very clingy and very sneaky. He's emotionally unstable, so she might see the danger before entering a relationship with him.

LEE FELIX

I really can't see this heaven-sent human as a yandere, but I'll try

He's very similar to Jisung, so it's easy to assume they'll follow similar aproaches. Not for nothing they're called Sunshine twins.

He's also very driven by emotions but he's less impulsive than Han. He prefers to think a bit more before acting, since he wants to look the best at all times for his Darling. That means keeping up appareances with other people too, even if he doesn't like them or can't stand their closeness to her. He wants to earn her through her friends first.

He basically charms everyone around him with his sunshine persona, offering home-made brownies and overall being a cute perfect boy. No one dislikes him and she has only heard great things about him, so she's at ease with him.

She doesn't that he eliminates anyone that suspects his dark side or speaks badly about him. That's why he's seemingly flawless in her eyes.

Because there's literally no one that talks bad about him.

He falls for his Darling due to the simplest things. Maybe a casual warm smile she directed at him once or her complimenting his baker skills. Simple gestures that are plain friendliness and politeness but his deranged mind interprets them in another sense.

He's delusional. A lot, really. If all his interactions with his Darling feel positive and she doesn't reject his advances, that's enough to make him believe his feelings are returned and she feels exactly the same for him.

He'll get close to her by befriending her first, obviously. He wants to take it slow, go step by step in fear he ruins it. He earns her trust and enphasizes his good traits for her. Of course, he uses his deep voice too (because he knows that's one of his best assets)

He's so gentle and kind and understanding, such a good listener. He provides for her and spoils her to the brim. It's only natural she trusts him with her secrets and confides in him.

Including to ask advice regarding her new crush...that's not him.

He doesn't let his inner turmoil be shown. He smiles softly and plays the sweetheart act until she leaves. Once she's out of sight, he finally loses the composure and unleashes the dark emotions he's been hiding for so long.

He doesn't understand. He has done everything perfectly. He's been nothing but charming to her, nothing but a good boy and flawless. He has made her laugh like nobody else, cared for her like a dutiful boyfriend. He's been basically a dream guy. Where did it go wrong?

But he refuses to lose like this. She's only confused, that's it. He shouldn't been so tolerant of the people she hang out with, should've watched better her surroundings. If he does it right, he'll open her eyes and move her back to the right path.

He knows there's no one better than him for his Darling. No one but him deserves her. No one can love her like he does, take care of her like he does.

So he does the only reasonable thing, the same he's done previously with other pests: Remove the obstacle permanently from his life.

KIM SEUNGMIN

Another master manipulator here.

No but for real, he's also relies on his intelligence, and these are the most dangerous and hard to escape out of all.

He plans every move he makes beforehands. He knows what he's doing at all times and, if not, he always has a plan B. He hates the idea of failing.

He's too cool to admit his feelings, so he tries his best to ignore/supress them. Last thing he wants is appear weak and/or vulnerable.

Obviously, he eventually embraces his obsession love and starts to formule a plan. He's another one that's more than willing to play the long game. .

He's only the right amount of polite when he's with his Darling and never more. He purposedly plays hard to get so she'll become interested in him and aproaches him first.

He'll be kind and friendly one day, and the other behave coldly and indifferent. He confuses her constantly in hopes she's drawn to his mysterious side and pays more attention to him.

They won't become friends per se, and he'll become more like a passive yandere like Minho. Watching her from afar and controlling what happens in her life without her knowledge. He'll collect her belongings too, although he won't make a fucking shrine like Minho would. He sees them as trinklets, memories from her. And also as material to learn more about her.

He's highly observant and discreet. Chances of him getting caught are very slim, and there's no way anyone could suspect of his tendencies. He's specially careful around his Darling, so unless her friends have all keen eyes, he could spend an entire life doing this.

He has her entire profile and routines memorized. Her adress, her relatives and friends, the teachers she's had and the places she likes to go. He uses all that information to create interactions where they're "casually" on the same place at the same time or he "accidentally" meets with some of the people she knows who in return talk to her about him.

Step by step, he makes his way through his Darling's life, with zero suspicions.

Unlike Minho, he'll actually aproach her when he follows her somewhere. He doesn't remain hidden, since he wants her to think they both frecuent the same places to see how much in common they have.

He figures out her crush before she has the time to say it. Since they're not close yet (much to his suffering), he finds out from other sources.

He's calm about the whole deal. Well, he still gets angry and has murderous thoughts, but he's an strategist. He has an entire journal with everything there is to know about her. He's good at gathering info.

So he does the same with his rival...but with entirely different purposes.

However, he doesn't simply expose his darkest secrets and removes him from his Darling's path quickly. Oh no. He has a sadist vein. He manipulates everything from the sidelines so his Darling ends up rejecting this person by herself, twisting their image in her eyes so she grows disgusted or uncomfortable with them.

And absolutely no one suspects him.

Once that pest is out of the way after a delicious and humiliating rejection, he moves back to his routine. This event may push him to accelerate the plan and strenghten his bond with Darling.

YANG JEONGIN

Another emotionally unstable one. Lord have mercy.

He's actually more mature that people give him credit for, but he has a certain brattiness, product of usually getting what he wants.

He's impulsive and prideful. The type to resort to the silent treatment if gets angry at someone. He refuses to give in first.

People often see just his cute, maknae persona and get fooled by how coddled he is, but everyone has dark sides, and his particularly can be very intimidating.

Have you seen his angry face? Yeah, I'll burst out crying if someone looked at me like that.

Moving on

He struggles to express his feelings openly, but he also expects his Darling to simply guess them and gets offended if she doesn't act accordingly. He expects her to read his mind.

His Darling would be either an old friend or a co-worker. He likes to remain in his circle, so he feels a bit more in control.

He'll admire her from afar and then aproach her by using his soft, cute maknae act to get attention and care, like he wants. He's used to be the centre of attention because of his cuteness, and let's be honest, she wouldn't resist it either.

He'll make sure her eyes are always fully on him, at all times. If she's paying attention to someone else, he's quick to snatch her with excuses like "i need help with this" "i don't know how to do this" "i'm nervous, can you be with me'" etc.

Another manipulator too. Of course, he learns from the bests of the category.

Meaning he knows how to pretend and act to get his way. He's not as innocent as he lets on.

He gets jealous and he doesn't hide it. He has two moods: He throws a tantrum and pouts (in front of his Darling), and he glares and mocks at the other person (when Darling is away).

Speaking of this, he'll bully anyone that shows interest in her. Like, literally bullying.

I mean intimidation, harassment, bad pranks. All behind her back, of course. He'll eventually convince people to not get close to her, and he'll be fucking happy about it.

Now there's no way she cannot notice him.

At least that's what he thinks, until he hears that his Darling has set her eyes on someone. And it's not him.

Out of all of them, he's the most likely to be caught by her, since he has a hard time hiding his anger.

He'll be resolved to kick that person out of Darling's life one way or another. Oh, and he'll also refuse to speak to her altogether, feeling "betrayed". Again, emotionally unstable and bratty.

Seriously, that person would go through hell. It'll be a mix of Changbin and Jisung. He'll try to play the victim and paint the other as the abuser.

However, he's so deep in with his rage that he gets sloppy. His Darling might caught wind of his harassment to others. She'll probably catch him mid-fight or provoking someone, making fun of them.

When she asks and tries to intervene, he doesn't answer. He doesn't want ignore her forever, but she hurt his pride by liking some other asshole, so he remains in the silent treatment.

He wants her to feel guilty, that it's her fault somehow. Emotional manipulation it's his weapon.

If he plays his cards right, he might get inside her mind and do what he wants with her. If not, she'll believe what she sees and cross him as a bully, avoiding him for good.

Regardless, his rival would be gone. That he'll make sure o

#FINALLY #you guys don't know how much i struggled with this damned request #i have no excuse besides i'm a lazy bitch unable to focus on one thing #i like this trope so i don't know what the fuck happened #anyway here you #most of these probably aren't even accurate but I tried my best #yandere skz #yandere bang chan #yandere lee know #yandere changbin #yandere hyunjin #yandere han jisung #yandere lee felix #yandere kim seungmin #yandere yang jeongin

266 notes · View notes

cho-aaacho · 4 months

Note

Stupid fucking idea that me and my sister made up:

Evil Wesker but with energetic henchman reader. Kinda cartoon villain like but it was too funny me and my sister kept giggling about it.

Imagine Wesker and the reader are trying to infect the world with Uroboros and Chris keeps fucking up Wesker’s plans.

Reader is like “Cheer up boss, we’ll get Chris next time! You’ll reach godhood in no time!”

Wesker hates, but also loves the fact that they’re willing, and energetic to help him achieve his goal. Kinda protective over them.

But imagine at the end of RE5 instead of dying, Wesker is just locked up in some maximum security prison.

But it’s just a little more bearable with the reader with them.

“Aw shucks. Well we didn’t get it this time. But i’m sure next time we’ll get it! Have faith boss!”

A very small, smile itches its way onto his lips. Maybe life imprisonment wouldn’t be so bad with you around.

Haha. What a fantastic idea! I have a scenario about this. I hope you love it!

Wesker is really good at being a leader. We can see how he carries S.T.A.R.S. and how he has a good relationship with them. Despite only acting, no one can detect that at all. So he's a good actor or just a psychopath?

He has charm and charisma, and everyone seems to depend on him. His charisma allowed him to entice people to do his dirty work. Narcissists are known to be charismatic, intelligent beyond the human realm, and highly manipulative.

Even no one notices when he's hacking a Bravo team's helicopter, which is the end game for them.

However, during his days in Tricell, he found someone interesting. And it's you. He barely talks with anyone at the Tricell facility; it's not because he hates them. He just doesn't have time to chit-chat.

At the time, his mind was consumed with Spencer and, of course, Uroboros. But one day, you told him something, and it was simply a strange conversation.

You say, "Let go of anything holding you back and die. There's nothing wrong with harboring dislikes toward others."

Realizing that he was only wasting his time, he started tracking and eliminating Spencer while ambitiously pursuing the Uroboros project. You've never seen him like this before; even Irving and Excella were upset by his unusual behavior.

Wesker even tells you about his Uroboros plans, including a backup plan in case he fails. You could not help but listen to him. Because he appears to be pleased with how you respond to him and reply to him.

"Okay, boss, do as you wish. Even if you try to burn everything down, the world around us remains the same. But it will feel different if you are not beside me."

After facing defeat by Chris and imprisonment, he doesn't hate or feel upset. It contradicted his nature, as he despised being defeated, especially by his archenemy.

Nothing else matters to him as long as he has you...

"Hey, Wesker... it's impressive that BSAA was able to lock us up. But don't worry; it's only a mild prison. After this, Chris will lose interest in us and eventually retire. At that moment, we will shine and return. If Chris wants to stop, he will. It's human nature."

He just... smiled. It was the first time you saw him relaxed like this. Though you are not worth it for that smile, you were really happy with that little detail about him.

"It appears I have your attention, Wesker. I am pleased to see you smiling. Let us try again and see if we can defeat Chris or those who support him, friends, and families."

#albert wesker x you #albert wesker x reader #wesker x you #wesker x reader #albert wesker #resident evil albert wesker

94 notes · View notes

skulla-rxcks · 9 months

Text

Because you’re mine. {Chapter 1}

next chapter

Paring: bangchan!afab reader, ot8! Reader

Rating: explicit (eventually)

Genre: mafia au

Warnings: eventual smut but not in this chapter, kidnapping, slight yandere!chan

Thank you for 100 followers :) ! Ily guys sm

!THIS IS PURE FICTION, NOTHING IN THIS IS REAL ITS JUST A STORY!

Chapter 1: stranger

“Fuck!” I mutter stamping my foot, realising I walked in a completely different direction I was supposed to.

Hell, I guess that’s because there’s hardly any phone service in this area which means I have to find my way to a job interview so I can finally earn more money for myself; a cashier at a gas station, pretty lame but hey. Money is money.

As soon as the reception is back I go into maps and reload the page, my phone battery dying almost immediately. How am I going to get to this interview on time? What if they reject me on the spot? The questions jumble across my mind.

“Hey, are you lost?” a mans voice comes up behind me, his breath ticking my neck because of how close he’s getting.

“excuse me I’m talking to you.” He repeats.

“Oh Uh, I actually am, I’m looking for the l-local gas station around here, I’m late to a job interview and my phones dead.” My body trembles slightly as I turn around and look up at the man who’s talking to me.

“You know, you could’ve taken a short cut, tho it seems a bit late now doesn’t it, mmm? You did say you’re running late after all.. how about I give you a lift home? It’ll just take longer trying to find your way around..”

“I don’t know if I can trust you.. I-I don’t even know you!” My voice is shaky, eyes watery, scared about what to do.

“Shhh shsh.. first off; you can call me Chan or Chris, and it’s okay don’t worry, look if you’re that scared you can hold my pocket knife while I drive.”

The car ride is silent. My hands starting to get sweaty from gripping onto the pocket knife. It’s a bit too quiet so I decide to talk, asking a simple question.

“Hey Chris? What do you do for work? Your cars pretty nice and everything so I’m wondering.”

“It’s personal business.” he replies in a tone cold enough to send brutal shivers throughout my body.

Personal.. business? What the hell does he mean? I probably shouldn’t ask any further questions who knows what he can do to me, he’s just a random man who offered me a ride home.

“Hey uh. My house is that way…” I reassure him. “Chan, i s-said my house is that wa…” my body goes cold as I say that, a sharp and cold sensation thrusts into my arm; almost like a needle. I can’t see anything. It’s just black and red. Red and black, my whole body feels numb

A few hours later. I find myself waking up tied to a chair.

“oh so your finally up..” foot steps approach me.

“Chan..?Where am I..what did you do?” I say scared, feeling his hands on my face as he takes off my blindfold, finally letting me see where I am. It’s a dark room with one singular light bulb hanging from the ceiling, looking down I notice I’m tied to a chair.

“i had to do this, otherwise probably wouldn’t have seen you again, going out isn’t really my thing.. I could be caught..”

He reassures me, moving behind the chair and placing his hands on my shoulders.

“C-Chan.. w-why I am tied up.. please let me go.”

“Mmmmm… we were attacked recently and you could’ve got taken if I didn’t secure you in one spot..” his hot breath tickles my neck, making me gasp at how close he is.

He continues talking but I zone out, instead focusing on the way his breath feels on my neck, making my legs shaking under his touch. “What do you think I should do with you?” “what do you m-mean..” I mumble.

“you’re so easy..” I feel his lips move along my jawline. “I could kill you right now and be done with you like everyone else I bring back here.. but i want something else.” He continues.

His tongue traces along my neck, I swallow hard, unable to form words. “I like you, princess, you have a certain charm that intrigues me.. maybe I’ll untie you, but only if you stay here with me… hm?”

“Chan? Are you in there?” Someone pounds on the door, from the voice it seems like another man. “Yep, Just uh, give me a minute Felix.”

Chan turns back to me and whispers into my ear again. “I’ll be back soon, Okay? Stay here.”

He leaves a light kiss on my earlobe before opening the door and leaving me all alone.

Many questions run through my mind; what does he do? Who is he? Why is he treating me like this?

I want to get out of this chair, i need to. But I’m forced to sit down. I want to cry, i want to scream. I hate it. The sound of nothing fills the air, i look around for anything to help me get out. There’s literally nothing at all. Only the chair and a lightbulb.

I could yell, i have the ability to speak but who knows what this man is capable of? The only thing I can really do is stare at the empty space around me, as much as it is useless it’s better than overthinking about everything. After what feels like hours i hear the door click, a man with a mask enters, i can’t tell who it is due to the mask hiding all of his facial features, i can tell that his arms are buff and he’s fit though, with a similar figure to Chan.

“C-chan..?” I mumble out, lip quivering as i look at the guy in front of me.

“Yeah. Don’t move, need to take you out of this room.” He groans, untying the ropes around my legs and wrists, making me fall to the ground as he takes the chair away.

“H-huh? Why..?” I question, taking his hand and walking out of the room with him.

“Stop asking questions. I’ll explain it all soon” Chan snaps back. Once we’re out of the empty room the area around us changes drastically, red carpet, lanterns on the wall. Almost like a palace, enough to make me gasp in response to my surroundings.

“Follow me.”

#~skulla rxcks #stray kids smut #skz smut #bang chan smut #bangchan smut #stray kids fanfic #skz fanfic #bang chan fanfic #skz x reader #skz fic

147 notes · View notes

labrxnth · 1 year

Text

REverse Headcannons- Sick Partner (Leon Kennedy)

How Chris, Leon, Jill, Claire, Wesker, Ethan, Carlos and Heisenberg react to (y/n) being home sick. (Gender Neutral Reader)

Leon Kennedy (Post RE4Remake): The first thing Leon noticed when he got to the door was that it was unlocked. You two had agreed to keep the door locked no matter what for security reasons; both of you were paranoid. He pulled his handgun out of the holster and lightly turned the doorknob. Sliding into the apartment, he heard the tv on and sighed, putting the gun away.

Leon was on his way to give you an earful about leaving the door open when we saw you. You were laying down, curled up on the couch, a blanket over you and your pillow under your head. You had a box of tissues and the trashcan on the floor.

He walked over to you quietly and sat on the couch, rubbing your arm and kissing your cheek.

Your eyes fluttered open and looked into his sky blue ones.

"Hey..." He said gently.

"Hey, babe," you said, coughing.

"When did you get sick? You were fine this morning," He asked, forgetting all about the lock.

"I was at work for an hour and felt the back of my neck start sweating. Thank God I left when I did, I would've passed out in the car," You replied.

"You should've called me, I would've come home," Leon said.

"I didn't want to bother you," You said quietly.

"Baby, no matter what you will never bother me," His gaze softened and he kissed your head.

"Leon-" You started to say.

"What? I'm kissing my wife in the comfort of my own home,"

"I don't want to get you sick," You said.

Leon nudged you a little bit to scoot over and he laid down with you. "There are worse things than getting sick from you," He said with a smirk. "Next time, call me," He said and tucked a few strands of hair behind your ear.

"Okay," You resigned. He wrapped his arms around your waist, pulling you closer.

"I'll take care of you tonight," He said and pecked you on the lips. "I will be the best malewife you have ever seen."

"As long as you wear that slutty apron," You giggled.

"For you? Of course," He pecked your lips again.

The rest of the day was spent with Leon cooking for you, giving you water and cold meds, and mostly cuddling. He doted on you, no matter how many times you warned that he was gonna get sick. He claimed that the germs couldn't get to him with his routine.

Leon got very sick from you, sicker than you were. But, his hot partner was taking care of him and he wasn't going to say shit about it.

#leon kennedy #leon s kennedy #leon kennedy x reader #leon kennedy x you #resident evil fanfic

278 notes · View notes

saturniandevil · 1 month

Text

April 2024 Important Dates

AKA my notes on The Astrology Podcast's April forecast, hosted by Chris Brennan and Diana Rose Harper (Austin is away on paternity leave). This is one of the most astrologically active months in the year. In addition to planetary movements, there's a comet that will be visible soon in the night sky and a nova.

We're going into the month right off the tail of a Libra lunar eclipse on March 25th. We're in "eclipse season," the time between eclipses, with much activity to report. Starting off, Baltimore's Key Bridge collapsed after a container ship crashed into it, which Austin called last forecast when he said that Mars's entry into Pisces (approaching a conjunction to Saturn) would involve a sudden halt in maritime trade. Astrologically it's quite on the nose, with a Libra (associated with trade/commerce) moon conjunct the South Node (symbolizing lack and decrease). We even have a chart for the opening of this bridge: it was an exact Mars return for this bridge, as well as its Uranus opposition and nodal opposition. Also on the Libra eclipse was the UN Security Council's vote for a ceasefire in Gaza. The April 8th eclipse will show us whether this resolution is successful, and a final Libra eclipse in October will tie these events together.

In celebrity news, we had obviously doctored photos of Kate Middleton prompting increasingly wild speculation on what the British royal family was hiding, culminating in Kate announcing her cancer diagnosis & chemotherapy plans on the March 22nd Venus(women, exalted in Pisces = royalty)-Saturn (slow illnesses) conjunction. She was also born on a lunar eclipse & announced this right before one. Just 3 days after the eclipse, on March 28th, Sam Bankman-Fried of FTX was sentenced to 25 years in prison, the newest development in a story that began on an eclipse when BitCoin crashed and revealed his role in one of the biggest instances of financial fraud in US history.

In smaller news, a nova in the T Coronae Borealis system will be visible as a new star in the night sky this year. This nova is visible every 76 years or so (the last time was 1946), and has been observed as far back as the Middle Ages. Add this to the eclipses and the comet, and Chris hasn't seen such an astrological buildup since forecasting 2020. As the eclipse hit his 3rd house Donald Trump published a book combining the Bible and the US Constitution, while in other news an orca was stranded in British Columbia, another dolphin & orca-related development in the (Mars-)Saturn in Pisces in cycle and Arizona announced Pluto as their state planet.

April Overview: with significant activity in Pisces, Aries, and Taurus simultaneously, we'll be getting hard aspects to every modality (and trines to every element)--everyone will be getting hit with some kind of change (but will have opportunities for growth as well). Chris makes a distinction between the challenging first half of the month, and a second half which will see more clarity.

April 1st - Mercury stations retrograde By time of posting this retrograde is in full swing: disruptions in communication, plans, travel and technology. Diana describes this as especially frustrating in Aries, trying to go one way but some huge miscommunication gets in the way. We may have to walk back on words spoken in anger and renegotiate situations where we identified the wrong target as our enemy. With the eclipse's ruler Mars conjoining Saturn on the 10th, anyone who travels for the eclipse and hangs around for a few days may run into blockages, likely due to rain and floods. Other general Mercury retrograde significations: people come back into your life, unfinished projects become relevant again, and situations from the past resurface. For example, Sagittarius risings often see the "duderang" effect where male lovers come back into their lives, as Mercury rules their Gemini 7th house. Mercury rx also brings delays and slowdowns, and is generally a good time for introspection and "emotional alchemy."

April 3rd - Venus conjoins Neptune This occurs right as she leaves the sign of Pisces. Venus-Neptune keywords: dreamy, fantastical, imaginative (especially with art), compassionate, and opportunities to find new avenues of enjoyment and pleasure. Saturn's copresence in Pisces can bring us some grounding and reality. This can also bring unclear boundaries, uncertain relationships, and idealizing one's lover--like using the soft lens. In events, AI images and videos and toxic synthetic dyes also fall under Venus-Neptune. Is the siren's call too good to be true?

April 4th - Venus enters Aries Chris hopes that Venus's copresence to the eclipse will mitigate some of its effects, but on the flipside this means she's left Mars and Saturn alone with each other in the Pisces chart of our house.

April 8th - Total Solar Eclipse in Aries This eclipse will be visible over much of the (particularly eastern) continental US:

Diana calls it a chiron eclipse, so here's the chart with chiron:

The Moon will eclipse the Sun at 19 Aries, which is where Chiron will be as well. Mythologically, Hercules brings back the head (North Node, Aries) of the hydra to Chiron, whose poison causes him incredible pain because he is immortal and cannot die from it. He eventually trades his immortality for Prometheus and Zeus puts him in the heavens as a constellation. Narratively, eclipses invert what we expect: it becomes dark in the middle of the day! Prominent people fall suddenly from grace and new rulers skyrocket to power during eclipses. Because the eclipse occurs in the sign of the Sun's exaltation, leaders and heads of state/organization/etc will be especially affected. A similar Chiron-influenced Aries solar eclipse occurred in 1968 when Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. was assassinated. Nelson Mandela was sent to jail under an eclipse, but was also freed under another eclipse and elected to office under yet another eclipse.

For individuals, make note of what house this occurs in for you; this will be the end of one chapter and the opening of a new one in this area of life. Anything close to 19° of Aries will definitely feel it, as will any placements at that degree of Cancer, Libra, and Capricorn (hard aspects to the cardinal signs), while 19 Leo and Sagittarius (trine to fire signs) may feel some support. Generally, this series of events in Aries-Libra began a year ago, and will have its final eclipse on this axis in March of 2025.

This eclipse is ruled by a Mars (♓) who's just about conjunct with Saturn (♓), grinding things to a halt. Whatever's happening in the Aries and Pisces place is going to take some extra time. Other keywords: the end of a life cycle, matters of great importance & turning points in world history, major disasters as well as scientific discoveries. Eclipses highlight just how much is out of our control, like being on a teacup ride that's going too fast and being unable to stop unless something hits you. 6 months later, we'll get an eclipse that connects to some of these events:

Diana also points out that there will be an influx of tourists to rural areas of the US, advising travelers to stay courteous and noting that many local municipalities advise residents to stock up on basic supplies so they won't be lacking when a small area is flooded with new people & their needs. Generally, the eclipse will be a very creepy experience, with the Sun going completely dark, colors becoming muted, and stars may even be visible--some cultures have warnings against going outside during eclipses. Back to metaphors, Chris points out that the small seeds of much larger events are often planted during eclipses. Sometimes you don't know until later just how important this obscured implantation is because, like the Sun, our vision is occulted. Take notes, even of subtle things.

April 10th - Mars conjunct Saturn in Pisces We expect the two malefics to bring us challenges: their conjunctions in late Capricorn & early Aquarius heralded the first COVID lockdowns, and other hard aspects brought new variants and similar pandemic news. In 2022 a Mars-Saturn conjunction occurred with an epidemic of ebola. However, note that these are all airborne viruses, and these movements occurred with Saturn in the air sign of Aquarius. What will this look like in Pisces, a water sign? Chris predicts that existing Saturn-Pisces issues with water pollution and maritime trade/travel will have destructive moments as Mars comes in, while Diana thinks about water as a vector of disease, such as cholera & sewage treatment. Now that deep permafrost is melting due to climate change, we may also see new pathogens or substances released, as well as complications from farm water runoff. We'll definitely see the effects of this Baltimore bridge collapse, and, with the outbreak of dengue fever in Latin America, may see developments around diseases borne of insect bites. We may also hear about the ill effects of microplastics, lead, and asbestos as a result of this conjunction. More generally: pollution, ocean, liquids, extremes of hot and cold, feelings of constraint (and literal constraint), and spiritual or emotional burnout. Pisces is a sign of inescapable enmeshment with each other, so we'll likely deal with compassion fatigue and emotional isolation (especially involving social media). Questions of whether or not something is "real" remain relevant as ever.

On the positive side, Mars-Saturn brings discipline and self-control. Sometimes Mars and Saturn can temper each other to give us self-sustaining focus. We can combine hard-won wisdom with the drive we need to achieve it, like a martial arts training montage. Do we have the belief and conviction to achieve mastery? With determination we can reach heights we once only imagined. There's also stamina, resilience, and rigidity. Overlapping with the Mercury retrograde, we can also see delays and obstructions. If there are boundaries you've been meaning to enact, now is the time. We can see potential pitfalls, but beware of pessimism and not believing in yourself. Resentment and pent-up anger can also come into play as Mars's impulse butts up against Saturn's inaction, but incremental progress adds up.

April 11th - Sun conjunct retrograde Mercury (Cazimi) This marks a turning point in the retrograde. Diana uses a spelunking metaphor: during the retrograde we're diving into the cave, and at the cazimi we've found our treasure...but we still have to make our way back out. Our personal eclipse stories may become clearer during this time as well.

April 19th - Sun enters Taurus, Retrograde Mercury conjunct Venus Venus will help sweeten communications during the last week of Mercury's regression.

April 20th - Jupiter conjunct Uranus This brings freedom, liberation, and sudden rapid growth--completely different from the Mars-Saturn activity earlier this month. This may also set us up for the Jupiter-Mars conjunction later this summer. The Uranus in Taurus story has brought labor organizing and unions to prominence, so expect those stories to intensify during this conjunction. General keywords: technological breakthroughs and scientific discoveries, sudden revelations and growth, revolutions, rupture, and unexpected shifts. This conjunction takes place every 14 years, so Chris expects new discoveries, optimism and "quantum leaps" or new precedents in some fields. In Taurus this is related to food and agriculture--in addition to new technologies we'll likely see further developments with the farmer's protests in India and Europe. Finance and money is another Taurus signification, so disruptions in banks & questions about decentralizing currency may arise. Freedom, rebellion, and general eccentricity become important. We'll feel like anything is possible, but in disregarding the rules and refusing to compromise we may make rash decisions.

The comet Pons-Brooks may also start to become visible during this time. It comes by about every 80 years and is named for its 18th century discoverers. Ancient literature on comets is similar to that of eclipse: an ominous phenomenon heralding the deaths of rulers and falls of kingdoms. However, they note the color and appearance as indicating some positive effects when associated with Jupiter, and the planets whose path it crosses are relevant as well. Pons-Brooks passes closely by the Jupiter-Uranus conjunction, putting an exclamation point on the planetary significations.

April 23rd - Scorpio Full Moon

We're finally out of eclipse season, so things are starting to calm down. However, this lunation (04♏) squares Pluto (02♒), bringing some conflict in. It'll be stabilizing, but not necessarily comforting. Acceptance is bittersweet medicine. The full moon illuminates the deep transformative experiences Pluto brings to the early degrees of fixed signs in our charts. We're really getting to the bedrock of things. When Venus enters Taurus she'll square Pluto, and Mars will trine Pluto when he enters Aries. With those personal planets in domicile, it'll feel like coming home, but home is a little different. Pluto will retrograde soon and Chris predicts this station will bring major events in AI and related technologies. Mars is also quickly nearing his conjunction with Neptune, bringing the weaponization of these technologies.

April 25th - Mercury stations direct

April 28th - Mars conjunct Neptune (typo in image) Aside from weaponization of AI and social media, Mars-Neptune also connotes the manipulation of reality for political purposes. Revealing that a shocking news story was actually false wont necessarily diffuse the feelings it arose. Even if it didn't happen, you may still hold resentment towards the wrong target. Think the "fog of war" or shadowboxing. Other keywords include conflicts in or about water, idealism & ideologically-charged conflicts, confusion, acid, corrosion, lethargy, sapped vitality, and unnecessary martyrdom.

April 29th - Venus enters Taurus She immediately squares Pluto. Venus in domicile brings us to the election for the month:

April 29th - Selected auspicious election (not pictured)

Set the chart for about 12:55PM local time, which gets you Leo rising with the Ascendant ruler Sun in the 10th whole sign house in Taurus, where it's copresent with Jupiter, Uranus, and Venus. This chart is good for 10th house matters like career, reputation, social standing, overall life direction and accomplishing goals. The Moon is in Capricorn, applying to a trine with Jupiter, bringing support. Mercury has stationed direct, bringing us away from some of the delays and issues we experienced earlier. Even the Mars-Saturn conjunction is about as far away as we can get, and a day chart Jupiter conjunct Uranus brings creativity to our efforts. Diana associates the 10th house with the gestating parent and thus recommends doing something nice for your mom now.

April 30th - Mars enters Aries Entering firey and decisive Aries, Mars is no longer encumbered by slow Saturn and diffuse Neptune. This complete chapter change comes with a sextile to Pluto--the tone shift will feel like getting our oxygen back. This opens us up for a lot of quick movements through Aries and Gemini in May.

#astrology #forecast #the astrology podcast #april 2024 #solar eclipse in aries #saturn conjunct mars in pisces #venus conjunct neptune in pisces #mercury retrograde in aries #mercury retrograde #great north american eclipse #jupiter conjunct uranus in taurus #jupiter conjunct uranus #mars conjunct saturn #venus conjunct neptune

17 notes · View notes

stagefoureddiediaz · 1 year

Text

Oh I’ve just had a thought about the couch metaphor!!!

So we know that the couch is tied to romantic relationships for Buck, but that it also seems to be tied to familial ones as well.

Chris being the one to bring up bucks lack of couch, Bucks parents being the ones to buy him his replacement (uncomfortable) couch, Buck falling asleep on the Diaz couch, both Diaz’s falling asleep on the Diaz couch (separately), Eddie not sitting on the couch when he is alone but is talking to Buck etc

We also know that Bucks current couch is the wrong couch - in terms of his romantic relationships. But it is also the wrong couch in terms of familial relationships as well - his parents choosing it for him, not Buck so its representative of Buck not getting to choose the family he was born with - which is why he can’t get comfortable on it before he goes over to Eddies and falls asleep. This is nothing we haven’t already discussed.

But the thing thats occurred to me is; as it seems likely that Kameron’s waters breaking on the couch may play some part in destroying it, that would also be the perfect metaphor for Kameron and Connors family not being the right family for Buck either - the life he helped create not being his family and re-enforcing the idea that DNA doesn’t make a family (double whammy of the Buckley parents and C&K’s Baby not being his family despite sharing DNA) because your family will meet you where you’re at (which also applies to Bucks romantic life but we’re not there yet with him) and that made me think about the fact that bothDiaz’s may comment on Buck not having a couch and that being weird, but they don’t pressure him in to actually replacing it- they just go along with where he’s at. Maddie is the other person - she sits with him on his armchair - symbolic of her meeting him where he’s at as well - she has accepted his reasoning for taking his time choosing a couch because he wan’t to pick the right one.

There is one other aspect in all this - the fact we haven’t seen Buck on the Diaz couch (until 6x12) since the will reveal - we saw him on it a lot in season 4 - playing games with Chris and then sleeping on it when Eddie was in hospital and then anything Diaz house related with buck took place in the dining room, Eddie’s bedroom or half in the kitchen in season 5 (Andrew Meyers I’d like to have a word please because he wrote Chris and Buck on the couch in s4 + suspicion which set up Buck on the couch in 4x14 and then he wrote 6x01 and 6x12 so its likely he is responsible for the whole couch metaphor) and then the first time we see him on that couch again, its in combination with a scene where they actually talk about the shooting - all very telling about whats actually been going on in Bucks head since Eddie ‘Because Evan’d’ Buck - figuring out exactly where he fits in the Diaz family!

And actually Bucks coma dream and his feeling different in the aftermath all plays into this too - his feeling guilty about Christopher (who he doesn’t refer to by name) and Eddies physical absence - which its implied the Buck has figured out all play into the idea of Buck mentally battling with them being family - the sorry your not real implies that Buck doesn’t believe he’s a father to Chris at this point, but that things start to become clearer in the aftermath - as his math powers fade

So however we see Bucks couch meet its end in 6x18, if we do get to see him end up on the Diaz couch - choose his family - in the end then all those familial metaphors come full circle an that has really been Bucks arc for the season (actually his low key arc since 4x14!)- family and familial love - the thing he needs to feel secure in before he can focus on romantic love.

#this is such a mess of a post #does it even make sense!!!#but my brain is going brrrr #this was meant to be a brief thought and then it spiralled!!!#couch metaphor #family being the thing Buck needs to figure out is so intrinsic to who he is #and once he feels secure in that then he can actually look properly at his romantic love - because at the moment all of its jumbled up #so getting one thing sorted in his mind will give him the strength and freedom to reckon with romantic love!#all roads lead to the Diaz couch which in turn leads to Buddie canon #season 7 I will be over analysing the hell out of the first episode you mark my words #911 spoilers #911 on fox #911 fox #bucks couch #buck #eddie #the Buckley-Diaz family

142 notes · View notes

kisskissbanggang · 6 months

Text

Disavowed - pt. 5

[5.4k Words/20min. Read - Reverend!Jisung & Reader - Priest!Chris & Reader - NSFW/NOT SMUT/Frightening Scenes and Violence - Church, Who Even Are You Anymore?, Jisung is a Rotten Bastard, So is Chris, Miserable Self-Reflection Skills, Confrontations, Your Housemates are Literally the Only Good People Here, Harrowing Guilt, Temptation, Salvation, There's a Reserved Spot in Hell for Men Like Him, Self-Doubt, Impossible Happenings, Paranoia, We Love to Make Boys Cry in This House, Cliffhanger, Kidnapping, Obsessive Behavior, Toxic Behavior, Gross Abuse of Power Dynamics, Guns and Gun Violence, Cruel Rituals, Arson, Supernatural Horror, Implied Character Harm/Death, Police Chases, Manhunts]

[a/n #1: we're in the intense/frightening parts of our halloween series! this is quite honestly a supernatural horror with religious themes dealing with transformation, desire, and sacrifice. please pay attention to the tags above, especially the ones in bold pink so you can do what's right for you 💗]

[a/n #2: ty to @therhythmafterthesummer and @magicficwriting for beta reading and previewing 💗]

[Part 1 | Part 2 | Part 3 | Part 4 | Come Say Hi!]

“Dear, go make some more field trip forms, please,” she hastily ordered. “Delores is taking 4-H to the livestock auction next week.”

A stark lie if you ever heard one. The tray of field trip forms on Roberta’s reception desk was visibly full–

But then Jisung walked in, hands kept nervously at his sides.

“Now, please,” the Sister emphasized.

Jisung glanced at you and you quickly averted your gaze, instead scrambling to your feet and slipping out of the front office into the hallway.

At least now you knew for sure that Father James got the thumb drive you’d slipped in with his morning mail.

Still, you hovered by the door. The Sister brandished her ruler like a pointer, directing Jisung into her office.

“Get a move on, Reverend,” she frowned.

Jisung hesitated before he stepped inside, and the Sister swiftly followed him, swinging the door shut with a slam. The white noise machines on both sides of her door clicked on a moment later, muffling the sound of Sister Judith laying into the reverend with force. You strained to hear better when a hand on your hip made you jump out of your skin.

You whirled around, gasping sharply when you found Father James standing there. He almost looked amused by your reaction.

“Pardon me, lamb,” he gruffly excused himself, “I’m sure you have work you’re supposed to be doing. You ought to go… do it.”

The way his eyes moved down over you from your head to your feet and back made you feel nauseous. You’d debated slipping the thumb drive to Sister Judith instead, but you knew there’d be no scenario in which Father James wouldn’t see the security footage of you and Jisung kissing on the library floor.

Your disgust was interrupted by the Father sliding into Sister Judith’s office. For a split second, you could hear the tirade.

“Heaven forbid, but what if a student had seen you?! Your reprehensible, disgusting behavior–”

Bile bubbled in your throat and you decided that, against your initial ruling, it was actually better if you left. Maybe not to the copy room, but anywhere else. Maybe the faculty room since it was class time and everyone you liked to avoid was currently occupied.

Except when you entered the main hallway proper, Chris was there once again, just like the previous week. He was caught off guard, looking at you from the other end of the hall. For a second, his hand raised like he was going to beckon you over so he could say something, but he apparently thought against this, his hand closing into a fist at his side and sharply turning his head back the way he’d been heading before continuing on his way.

You felt like you were going to burst into flames.

No, you wouldn’t force yourself to endure the day. If you were going to be miserable and furious, you were going to do it from the comfort of your bed.

Your roommates that were home tried to leave you alone for approximately one minute. Minho broke first, brazenly letting himself into your room while you tried and failed to concentrate on reading a book, and nagging you to eat lunch before leaving a cup of tea and some cookies on your coffee table. Next was Jeongin, who brought you your mail while sheepishly reminding you that he and everyone were there to talk if you needed. Only later that afternoon, when your back started to get a little sore from stewing in bed, did you finally decide to get up when you saw Changbin’s car pull into his parking spot.

What set you on edge, though, was that another car pulled in behind him.

You sat up straight, looking out your window to see Jisung get out of his car in such a rush that he left the door open and scared the shit out of Changbin. Your roommate spun, immediately defensive when he recognized what was going on.

Moving fast, you grabbed your slippers and ran downstairs, but by then all the boys were on the porch and in the driveway trying to get Jisung to fuck off as politely and geneally as possible.

“Dude, whatever your problem is, I don’t want it,” Seungmin argued.

Jisung tried to shoulder past him before Changbin stopped him. “I promise you, I just want to talk!” he angrily snapped.

“I hardly think any of us give a shit. I couldn’t give more a shit if you wanted to apologize, honestly,” Minho interjected, “I think it’s just better for everyone if you got in your car and left.”

Jeongin gently passed by you, ready to hand Seungmin his baseball bat when you snatched it yourself.

“That’s enough!” you announced. Everyone stopped. If you were anywhere near a better headspace, you’d almost enjoy all eyes on you, waiting to hear what you had to say. Hopefully, no one saw you shaking.

“I’m here. I’ll talk,” you firmly continued. “Only if it’s on the porch, and only if it’s civil.”

Your roommates all begrudgingly walked back into the house, but you knew fully well they were all listening on the other side of the door. Truth be told, you were thankful for it.

Jisung, meanwhile, tried to regain his composure.

You wondered if you would feel nearly as brave if you weren’t holding a baseball bat. “Well? How was your meeting?” you asked after a tense pause.

Apparently, Jisung lost all progress on calming down in that split second. He let out a rude, cruel laugh. “You know what? I feel real sorry for you.”

You raised your eyebrows in disbelief. “Pardon me?”

“There’s something truly wrong with you,” the reverend ranted. “I nearly lost everything because of you! I’m lucky Father James and the Sister are fucking sympathetic because Lord knows you’re not!”

“I’m sorry,” you dryly scoffed, “but how the fuck did I make you almost lose everything?!” You boldly took a step forward, making Jisung flinch and cower back an inch. The space allowed you to capitalize on this, and you lifted the bat, menacingly jabbing him in the shoulder.

“I didn’t make you be nice to me!” you accused with a jab.

“I didn’t make you kiss me!”

Jab.

“I didn’t make you go out with me, or fuck me, or become obsessed with me! So, please, tell me: how did I make you lose almost everything?”

Jab.

By now, Jisung was off the porch step, and you towered over him. Regardless, he squared his shoulders, standing tall in his audacity. “You are a rotten fucking snake!” he bellowed. “Whatever is wrong with you, it’s not normal! It’s fucking inhuman, is what it is, and if you’re wise then you’ll try to seek forgiveness.”

“How about you?” you sneered. “Are you going to seek forgiveness?”

Jisung fumed, grabbed the baseball bat out of your hands, and pointed it back at you. “Why the fuck are you doing this? What are you getting out of this?!”

The front door slammed open behind you but you held out a hand, trying to continue taking care of this yourself. Instead, with Jisung seeing your roommates gathered behind you, he pitifully swung the bat underhanded onto the lawn and then marched back to his car before speeding off.

Despite everyone’s best efforts, you were shaken well into the night, and not for their lack of trying.

No, it was because no one heard what you heard.

Why are you doing this?

What are you getting out of this?

You hated thinking about Chris.

And whatever Jisung meant by Father James and Sister Judith being “sympathetic” to him, you did not want to know. The way that you’d presented serious evidence and Jisung apparently was able to plead his case and not lose everything put the taste of ash in your mouth.

You tried to quietly reflect in your room. When that didn’t work, you tried writing everything down. When you hated that, you found yourself pacing back and forth. You were restless and upset and it felt like something inside you was going to combust.

So you walked out.

Felix tried to stop you, feebly attempting to get you to stay and watch some cooking show with him, clearly aware that you weren’t doing so hot. You didn’t even change into sneakers. Your socked feet only had your slippers for protection, and you hadn’t bothered to switch out your cardigan over your lounging clothes for a better jacket. The cold night air stung your cheeks and rattled your chest.

You walked and you walked, arms meagerly folded across your chest to shield you from the slight wind chill. Where you were going or where you’d end up, you had no idea. All you knew was that every time you thought you saw a sedan that looked like Jisung’s, you turned and walked the other way.

All of this felt so raw. You didn’t even feel like yourself anymore.

But who were you to begin with?

People had told you that you were pretty before. You’d slept with people before. People had loved you before.

But why did it feel so good when you captured and kept Chris’ attention until it was too good to handle?

And how did it go so wrong when you did the same thing to Jisung?

You felt like a monster, but that didn’t even feel like the problem.

All you did was what you wanted. That’s how this all started. No doubting yourself or concern over outcome.

A concern over the time suddenly occurred to you, and it was only then that you realized you’d left your phone back at the boarding house. It was late, too late for most businesses to be open and provide a chance for you to throw in the towel and call Seungmin to give your sorry ass a ride back to the house, but you thankfully found yourself on the main street. The one gas station that was still open was only a block away–

And so was Chris’ truck, parked out back.

At least, it looked like it, but it was hard to tell in the dark with only streetlights to help you. You padded closer to get a better look–when a strong pair of arms wrapped around your waist from behind, hauling you off your feet. Your eyes scrunched shut when you tried to scream, and this kept you from seeing who exactly threw a sack over your head. Adrenaline surged through you. Your fingertips felt hot and numb at the same time. There was a soft buzz in your ear lining any and all sound. You cursed and thrashed and screamed, trying like crazy to fight off whoever was trying to take you away, until a punch to your gut knocked the air out of you and you were thrown into a cramped vehicle.

The breath in your lungs coughed out and wheezed in, muffled gasps under the sack covering your head and you felt boneless yet petrified, powerless to do anything when your wrists were tied together. All you could manage to do was try to catch your breath while you were being driven somewhere. You tried to feel which way the vehicle turned, where exactly it was heading, but you confused yourself trying to keep up until your journey was cut unexpectedly short. Two pairs of hands clutched at you and hauled you back out into the night air, but another set of footsteps could be heard ahead of you.

Kicking felt useless, but it was all you could attempt to do. You tried to calm yourself enough to think now that you were out in plain air, however the bag over your head made you feel like you were choking. A hand clutched particularly hard on your sleeve and you wished like crazy that it would just let go.

The hand suddenly relinquished you, its bearer hissing with a curse.

Father James.

“What’s the matter?” came an impatient voice. A woman.

Sister Judith, obviously. You could hear her frown.

“Little monster zapped me,” Father James grumbled as he tried to adjust something, possibly multitasking. “Here, hold this–what do you mean, no? God, you’re useless. Fine, we probably won’t even need it.”

You were tripping over your feet as you were manhandled into walking. If you could just figure out where you were, then you could try to devise an escape plan. First you’d been driven, really only for a few minutes. Then your slippers were dragging over pavement as you were being hauled to your next destination, and a door opened. There were jangling keys in a lock of a heavy door.

The Sister was too far away for her to be the other set of hands on you. There was one on your shoulder, and another on your waist. This wasn’t Father James, whose strong hands were icy frigid and gnarled like tree branches. One clutched onto your arm, and the other held onto the nape of your neck like one would scruff a dog. Your footsteps echoed on linoleum tile now. Whatever room you were in sounded huge.

“Get her up,” Father James instructed. A light switch flipped somewhere off to the side. The dark room gained one hazy light source outside the bag on your head. Your breath eked out in shallow gasps. The hands on you roughly hoisted you onto a table or some other tall surface.

“Let’s begin,” the Father directed seriously. “You’ll need to hold her down. I don’t want to resort to heavier restraints but we can if needed.”

The person he was directing picked up your bound hands from where you had them clutched at your chest, and then lifted back over your head. Your back arched uncomfortably.

“Oh,” he continued, too casually for how panicked you were, “and remove the blindfold. We need to see her face.”

The old man began to pray quietly under his breath when the sack was pulled from your head. One light shining overhead blinded you momentarily, but the face over yours, the person holding fast onto your bound wrists, haloed in light–

Was Jisung.

You didn’t know why he looked just as surprised to see you. He was the one that got you into this situation to begin with. You knew it.

Whatever is wrong with you, it’s not normal.

It’s fucking inhuman.

You hadn’t thought much of it at the moment, wanting only for Jisung to get the hell away from you, but you knew it instantly. Your eyes watered in realization.

Of course Father James and Sister Judith were sympathetic to the reverend.

He convinced them that whatever he did wasn’t his fault whatsoever. It was yours.

And it was unholy.

This was a goddamn exorcism.

Jisung’s wide eyes shook looking down at you, almost like he was coming to terms with the consequences of what he’d done. You still uselessly wriggled in his grip but you were already exhausted. There was only enough energy left in you to recognize that this wasn't just an undisclosed location; this was the church. Jisung was holding you down on the altar, one light illuminating the surface in the dark chapel.

“It’s okay,” he quickly tried to reassure you with a rushed whisper.

Maybe he was reassuring himself.

“Fuck you!” you screamed, capping it off by spitting right in his face. Really, from this angle it reached an apex and fell to hit you instead. Jisung didn’t try to remove the spray that did land on him. In the background, Sister Judith tutted at your outburst. Father James continued praying.

“I’m doing this because I care!” the young deacon rationalized, his wavering voice still low. “We’re friends!”

You thrashed in retaliation with some renewed vigor. “Friends?! Friends don’t do this, Jisung!”

Father James waved over the Sister. Now they were praying together.

“Friends don't do what you did either,” Jisung scolded you, no longer whispering. He leaned down to softly press his lips to your temple. You craned your face away from him as much as you could manage. Shamefully, tears were beginning to bead in the corners of your eyes.

“Jisung,” you pleaded, trying to hold down a sobbed hiccup, “help me. Please.”

“I’m going to,” he nodded quickly, and kissed your forehead again. “We’re saving you!”

There were tears brimming in his eyes, too. Neither of you had looked away from each other just long enough for the old priest to get up to his feet. Sensing him beside you, you were startled to see him standing there with his hand cocked back, the other hand clutching his bible.

The first slap across your face was instant.

Jisung flinched with a jump. His hands on your wrists were either meant to restrain you or comfort you. Eyes wide, quivering lips parted to almost say something, he looked from you, to Father James, and back.

“I’m calling on the spirit possessing this devout body,” the Father began, voice serious and booming. He slapped you again, the sting matching the pitch of your cry in the echoes of the empty church. Why the fuck did it hurt where he wasn’t even touching you?

Jisung–that snake–looked distraught. “I’m sorry–” he uttered. A tear rolled down his cheek, getting caught in the traces of saliva you’d spat at him.

“You’re sorry?!” you shrieked with a hysterical laugh. Spite surged down through your ribs. “What did you expect?!”

Father James interrupted your exchange when he pressed the bible in his hand into your sternum. You shifted uncomfortably under the weight. Sickeningly, you realized he was giving himself leverage for the next slap.

Your screams didn’t feel like your own voice.

“I’m calling on the spirit possessing this devout body,” he repeated, more menacingly this time. Sister Judith approached now. You frantically wondered why, but then felt Jisung’s grip on you faltering.

“Sister,” Father James called over his shoulder, “watch the boy. I’m taking over.”

With surprising strength, the Father looped a finger into Jisung’s collar and pulled him aside, sending the reverend falling to the floor beside Sister Judith. That sting was worse now, pinpricks like little needles coursing through your skin and pushing through your chest. Why the hell did this hurt so badly?

Father James fumbled to reach under his arm and you saw now, with a nauseating realization, that he was wearing a holster. He haphazardly tossed his pistol to Jisung. “There,” he smirked, “now can you hold this? This is always the part that starts getting a little more wily. No telling what she’ll do.”

Jisung looked, eyes watering and red, down at the gun in his hands. Meanwhile, the old priest pushed his full weight on top of his hand pinning you to the altar, now having shifted so the curve of his index finger and thumb fell into the outline of your breast. He leaned down in the middle of his prayers.

“I don’t think this was one of God’s gifts for you, lamb,” he chuckled in your ear, “but it seems this is one small one for me. I told you I can enjoy as many as I’m able to from right here–”

The rear entrance of the church rattled ominously, interrupting the whole ritual. You tried to get your wits about you and took a second to attempt sitting up while everyone was momentarily distracted. Your comfy t-shirt under your cardigan smelled burnt and you looked down, dumbstruck to see a bizarre scorch mark smoking through the material. Fighting to get leverage despite your tied wrists, Father James noticed and shoved you back down onto the altar when the rear entrance creaked again. The door cracked open then, and a breeze shambled in–

Along with Chris.

That son of a bitch came to save you.

Your shocked realization was in sync with an echoing gunshot ringing in your ears. Disbelieving, you looked at Jisung, who was just as surprised to see himself holding the gun aloft. You looked back at Chris, who stumbled backwards a step, trying to process what just happened. A bloom of red sprouted at his abdomen.

“Well, that’s not supposed to happen–” he wryly joked, almost a mere observation before he fainted, collapsing to the floor.

God, that was just your luck.

But maybe you didn’t need him after all. You weren’t even scared anymore. You were furious.

Whatever led him here at this moment, you just knew that there was no way Chris couldn’t have come sooner. There was no doubt in your mind that he could’ve prevented this entire debacle.

You were already angry. And now you were enraged. Chris wanted to help? He wanted to save you?

You were going to strangle him when you got your hands on him, even if that asshole was dead by then.

But you had other business to sort out first.

When you looked at the old man again, your glare narrowed. Every sensation of disgust that you’d ever experienced from him shot through you like a bolt, and you heard that same zap again. Father James’ eyes widened before he let go of you, taking a wary step back. You sat up and bit the knot on your restraints loose. Sister Judith approached while Jisung retreated, scrambling backward. Your focus shifted to the nun, and her arms flailed when she uncontrollably stopped in place.

See? You knew you’d be able to get out of this yourself.

Father James struggled as you willed him closer, falling to his knees in front of the altar while you hopped off. Chris dazedly roused, watching from the bottom of the doorway to the rear hall and clutching his stomach. You wrapped a hand around one of the large pillar candles by the altar and pulled it out of its stand. The Father gazed up at you, not understanding what was happening when he couldn’t move, could hardly breathe. You grabbed the pack of cigarettes out of the old man’s breast pocket and flicked the cardboard packet open. His lighter sat inside. You grabbed it and carelessly dropped the pack before lighting the pillar candle. Almost ceremoniously, you presented the candle to Father James. He gulped, straining while he tried to deny his hands accepting it. The wax dripped as you walked up to the ambry, by the door to the robe room at the front of the church. All eyes were on you again, and it felt invigorating, energizing you when you opened the ambry to grab the holy oils inside. You uncapped one at a time, never knowing these were here before the idea ever occurred to you and never really caring to know what exactly they were. All you knew was they simply smelled nice as you meticulously emptied each one onto the floor of the chapel, up to the tapestries hanging from the ceiling that brushed the tile. Father James was pale when you came back to him. The last bottle of holy oil emptied into a pool at his knees. This felt so visceral, so dire, but for reasons you didn't fully grasp yet entirely trusted, it felt deserved.

“W-what is this?” he pitifully asked. “What are you?”

“I thought you knew, Father,” you answered, a newfound calm washing over you. “You wouldn't exorcize a woman just for fun, would you?”

The man gulped again. “I’m… I’m sorry. Forgive me.”

You shrugged, almost benevolent. “How about this, lamb. If you think you deserve forgiveness, you won’t lay that candle down.”

The two of you locked eyes then, staring each other down like you were looking for answers inside of each other.

Meanwhile, you decided to extend some kindness.

“Sister,” you called, your gaze unmoving from the Father. “You may leave.”

At once, Sister Judith gathered her habit away from her feet, wiping stunned tears from her eyes as she fled down the aisle and out the vestibule. Jisung, who was never made to stay in place, followed right behind her.

Father James solemnly laid the candle down.

You looked around the altar as the blaze began, chasing the stream of oil up the tapestries. The smoke burned your nose but felt deliriously good. Chris, by the door, was gingerly trying to get up to his feet.

Still, you exerted some more mercy. The flames at Father James’ knees singed your slippers but it didn’t hurt. You stepped closer to the old man and cupped his face in your hands.

“You don’t have to stay.”

James closed his eyes, his lips pulled back into a stoic frown.

You leaned down and picked Chris up to stand, slinging his arm around your shoulder with such an unexpected ease that you wondered if you could’ve simply carried him in your arms instead. The two of you walked out of the back entrance, suddenly facing the cold night air again as the church began to smoke. Sirens could be heard and you were brought back, all at once, to what the hell just happened.

This was terrible.

You made your way to Chris’ truck but Jisung was running up to you.

“You monster!” Jisung cried. “What the fuck did you do?!”

“What did you do?” you asked, stunned while Chris tried to dig in his pockets for his keys. “You’re not innocent, Jisung. You didn’t know what I would do, but you did this all the same.”

The sirens were coming in fast, and you realized that Jisung was still clutching the gun in one hand, and his cell phone in the other.

Bastard.

The cops were coming first, and Jisung reached for you, a stupid move with the pistol still in his hand. Chris leaned forward then, surprising you by shoving him back. You snatched the gun out of Jisung’s hand and pointed it back at him. You had no intent of shooting the poor asshole, but you wanted a second to shove Chris in the truck and climb in on top of him to scramble into the driver’s seat. Jisung watched helplessly as two cop cars came peeling into the church parking lot, and you stamped on the gas, putting a cloud of exhaust behind the truck when you charged out onto the main road.

Where you were heading, you had no idea, but the shock of the night finally settled into you. You melted into the bench seat of Chris’ truck, trying to process this all. He was thankfully quiet, trying to remain calm now that his bleeding appeared to slow down a little for some reason. A rag he found on the floor of the cab served decently as a makeshift bandage. The lights behind you were menacing, until you crossed city limits. Now you would only have to worry about the sheriff.

After roughly 10 minutes of recklessly fast driving, a question finally occurred to both of you, but Chris asked first.

“Where are we going?” he quietly asked.

“I don’t know. I’m sort of just driving.”

“Then start with Briar Bay.”

“That’s a good idea.”

More silence.

“... I’m sorry,” Chris softly apologized.

There it was. Your energy returned.

“Sorry?” you snapped. “You abandoned me.”

“Abandoned you?! I’m terrified of you!”

Your shocked expression, even while focusing on the road, even in the dark, made Chris clam up. It began to rain outside, and you wondered if this was better or worse for trying to hide.

“... I’m sorry,” Chris sheepishly repeated.

You didn’t like that it felt kind of nice, hearing him apologize. Meanwhile, with how fast you’d been driving down the country highway, you made it to Briar Bay almost ten minutes faster than normal, but you had no idea where to hide. The moment you pulled into town, the police department was already scattering patrol vehicles down the street. You steered Chris’ truck the other way, away from his neighborhood, but this meant heading down the main street. Your mind raced, and settled on parking down the alley by the Trawler.

With Chris trying to keep up behind you, you snuck in the back entrance, only to find a sheriff and two officers asking around inside the bar. You ran back out into the alley, but now a cop was shining a flashlight into the truck. It was Chris’ turn to pull you along, ducking in Reflections, where the back door of the cafe was propped open while they cleaned for the night. The two of you sat under a prep table in painful silence, with everything feeling desolate. Chris held onto your hand, and you felt grateful for this.

Of course, this was short-lived, too. Even over the din of the rain, you heard a knock at the cafe door. The cops questioned the owners. Had they seen you? No, they remembered you, but didn’t see you tonight.

You both sighed in relief.

Oh. Could they come in and take a look around anyway?

Your feet felt heavy.

You tried to surreptitiously sneak back out of the back door of Reflections, only to find that the cops had fucking split up, two searching inside while one came around the side. Before you could do anything, he already had his radio held up to his lips. You had no idea what to do.

So when you spotted Barrett Bluffs up the dirt pathway, you felt crazed and desperate but it was your last chance. If there was nothing else, then you would refuse to be punished. The bluffs were far steeper when you approached the top; now you could see why the local kids liked to dare each other to look over the edge. Doing it yourself, you actually spied a pathway, not too far down.

And there was the cave.

The one with the vengeful spirit that destroyed that old church all those years ago.

Maybe they were in a similar situation.

The cops slowed down when they saw you and Chris approach the edge, cornered as it were.

When you peered over again, trying to wipe the rain out of your eyes for a better look, Chris grabbed your elbow. You looked to him, grateful when he took both your shoulders in his hands and kissed you. As he stopped, you realized he was crying. And, as it would turn out, so were you.

“Go to sleep!” he urged you, yelling over the rain and the waves below.

You stubbornly shook your head. “No, asshole! Why should I?!”

“You’re not done falling!” he tried to explain through his tears. “You have to fall all the way. Go to sleep, baby, please.”

“Chris, please, don’t make me go to sleep,” you begged, “tell me what the hell is going on!”

“None of this is how it was supposed to go!” Chris continued, choking on sobbed breaths. “You are so strong and it scared the fuck out of me. I shouldn’t have left you. There’s one more thing I can do but I can’t come with you. You have to go alone. I just need you to go to sleep, is that okay?”

You whimpered as the cops carefully approached, guns drawn. Your heart was racing and pounding into your ribs. Chris’ thumbs massaged into your arms, attempting to reassure you.

“Yeah,” you sniffled, “that’s okay.”

Chris cracked a heartbroken smile and rested his forehead on yours. “The reward isn’t just for me; it’s for you, too. You’ll understand soon, I promise, but you have to fall, okay? All the way, and on your own, and then you can find me again when you do.”

You exhaled a shattered breath, your whole body trembling. “Chris, I’m scared.”

The cops were trying to decide who was going to attempt to grab you.

Chris’ hands, smeared in blood and coated in sweat and rain, cupped your face before he kissed you again. “I know, baby,” he nodded sympathetically, “so am I. You scare the hell out of me but you’re so, so perfect. You’ll find me again. It’s okay. Just go to sleep.”

And you did.

#neverendingdreams #straykidsland #stray kids fanfic #stray kids fanfiction #skz fanfic

26 notes · View notes

tawaifeddiediaz · 1 year

Note

tbf some of us are complaining about this feeling like eddieana/bucktaylor again because it feels like an unoriginal rehashing of those storylines, not just because of love interests per se

but is it? is it really?

before i say anything, i want to preface by saying that everyone is entitled to their own opinion about things, and that being disappointed with how the season ends is a valid feeling to have. except the way that this has spiraled through fandom with all these comparisons indicates that no one's really understanding the use of these storylines to begin with. that no one's taking it with any amount of grace, between the constant negativity, review bombing, etc etc and that's why it's frankly annoying.

yes, there was the whole thing about this potentially being the series finale, and if that had happened, it would've sucked, but it didn't. there are still many stories to tell about this whole thing, why not focus on that?

back to your ask:

eddie, this whole season, has spent time fretting and spiraling about not wanting to be alone, now that he's actually in a place to move on from shannon - who, as we've found out this season, has potentially been his only partner before ana.

think about the way that it is only this season that pepa starts to set him up, and that it's only this season that he even considers it, even if it's for his aunt's sake and he wasn't initially happy with it. think about the way he's been going to frank to unravel some of these feelings, that he and chris are talking more openly about shannon, that eddie is allowing himself to feel his grief so he can carry the weight of it better.

marisol, regardless of how anyone feels about her, comes in front of him and he feels a spark of connection with her at the hardware store. and this time, christopher himself encourages eddie to call her, ending the conflict we saw at the beginning of the episode where he was trying to text her.

eddieana and eddiemarisol are very different just on the basis of how he reaches out to her. it remains to be seen how they intend to continue it, but for the purpose of his arc this season, he's taken the step, his son is on board, and he's moving towards a relationship where he feels less of the grief of losing shannon. those are three securities that eddieana did not have, because eddieana was how eddie was trying to move on from shannon's loss, while eddiemarisol is what he's doing now that he already has.

as for bucktaylor - natalia, whether we like it or not, gives buck something that no other character on the show gives, just by virtue of not knowing him. him dying isn't a tragedy to her the way it is to everyone else, and for buck, who's still grappling with the loss of his life and all, that is a big thing for him to find somewhere.

it's easy for us to sit here and say "eddie sees him" or "how does someone who's known him for 3 seconds know him better than all his friends" or "she sounds too fascinated" but buck does not get afforded the same view that we do. he is an unreliable narrator, going through the things that we see from a bird's eye view, almost.

yes, there are multiple parallels between bucktaylor and bucknatalia but again, those are things we see, as viewers. they're not things that buck is going to notice right off the bat.

that ending scene with the couch - if we absolutely must with this specific interpretation of the theory - ali and taylor both came with couches. this is one where he's taking an active role in purchasing it for his apartment, an active role in pursuing something that'll make him happy. will it pan out? who knows. but where his story stands right now, it's miles different from where buck and taylor where at the end of s4.

and if it's buddie goggles that we're trying to view this through, then i absolutely do understand the disappointment, but with s7 coming up, and so much more for them to flesh out (because 911 does sometimes spread storylines across multiple seasons), there's going to be a lot more to come.

anyway this got very long, but my point basically is that i don't understand how this feels like they're rehashing storylines because when i take a look at the path towards the decision they made with ana and taylor vs marisol and natalia, it couldn't be more different.

#zee answers #eddie diaz #evan buckley #911 spoilers #911 meta #i have so much more to say but i actually don't have the english for any of it

38 notes · View notes

beardedmrbean · 4 months

Text

DOLTON - A south suburban politician under fire for the way she spends tax dollars has come up with a unique strategy to discourage people from running against her.

Tiffany Henyard is proposing a nearly 90% cut in her position's salary—but only if she's not filling it. It's just the latest controversy surrounding Henyard, who serves as both Thornton Township Supervisor and the Mayor of Dolton.

Thornton Township Trustee Chris Gonzalez was just sitting down at the start of the township's board meeting two weeks ago when he was handed a seven-page proposed ordinance requiring an immediate vote. Gonzalez said he had no time to read the proposed ordinance.

"And then we get into the meeting pretty quick," he said.

Leading that meeting was Supervisor Henyard, who was appointed to the position last year after the death of longtime supervisor Frank Zuccarelli. Henyard is certainly charismatic, often bringing a DJ to board meetings to help her make a point. But she's also controversial, spending tens of thousands of taxpayer dollars to promote herself with billboards and purchasing first-class tickets for out-of-town trips. She's also used public employees and vehicles to promote her personal charity and taken Dolton police officers off the street to create a personal security detail that's resulted in thousands of hours of overtime.

But back to that ordinance—which passed without Gonzalez's support.

"They're like, I can't believe it. How can someone do that?" said Gonzalez.

What the ordinance does is ensure that Henyard continues to receive her $224,000 a year salary as township supervisor. But if a non-incumbent becomes supervisor—in other words, if someone challenges Henyard and beats her—the salary for that position drops to just $25,000 a year, a pay cut of nearly 90%.

Trustee Gonzalez said it's a political poison pill to scare off competition.

"(It) discourages people from running is the first thing that comes to mind," he said.

But perhaps the bigger question is—is it legal?

"No. It's so illegal in so many ways. It violates so many tenets of the law," said municipal attorney Burt Odelson, who represents Henyard's political opposition in Dolton.

Odelson said under the concept of equal protection of the law, the salaries of elected officials have to be identity-blind, which means they don't change based on the person holding the job.

"It may be the worst attempt to try to dissuade people from running that I've ever seen. And that's a long time," said Odelson.

Henyard isn't facing re-election at the township until 2025. But already potential competitors are circling despite the drastically lower salary, including Illinois State Senator Napoleon Harris. But if Henyard is re-elected, she'll continue making the $224,000, even if she seems to believe the job is worth a fraction of that.

The ordinance also lowers the salaries of other election positions in the township—but again, only if someone new wins the job. It will likely stand as a curiosity, the only elected positions with two different salaries, until someone inevitably files a lawsuit.

A spokesperson for Thornton Township declined to comment.

How is a town with that low of a population affording 1/4 million salary let alone on top of the other stuff she's spent.

#nunyas news

10 notes · View notes

gilbirda · 2 years

Text

Can we keep her?

DPxBatman crossover. Jazz/Jason pairing. Background BatCat

Sequel to Dance with me?

NOW WITH SEQUEL -> Hit on me

The aftermath of last night's gala and all the implications. Also, time to meet the family!

thanks to @lapetitechatonne for taking a look at this and helping me not fall into despair!

[Read on AO3] [Read on FF.net]

Chris watched in shocked silence as subtly as she could. It was difficult — the lovebirds were the only patrons in the whole Denny’s at two in the morning.

Who the fuck went into Denny’s at two in the morning? You see, in Gotham it could be anybody. Shady individuals, people getting out from late night shifts, vigilantes when they got hungry in their patrols, etc. You know, the usual.

Not two people, clearly a couple, dressed like they came from a fancy party.

Or. At least they were, once upon a time.

Chris looked nervously at Jackson, probably with the same wide eyes and red cheeks.

It was such a bizarre experience, bearing witness of the way these two were all over each other, touching each other, kissing, being lovey dovey in general. They never went over what was decent publicly, mind you, or Chris would have been the first to call the police to escort these people out of the establishment.

No.

The worst part was that the pair was the cutest thing they had ever seen.

And Chris and Jackson knew who they were since the moment Jason Todd, wayward son of Bruce Wayne, entered by the door with Jasmine Fenton, the face of the Arkham Reform project, gingerly placed on his back.

Both looked happy, despite their fancy clothes completely askew, stained and modified for freedom of movement — he had opened the first buttons of his shirt and shed the jacket, which now was over the girl, probably to cover her a little since she had tied her skirt on her hips, the fabric now riding high up to her waist, showing the black shorts she wore under the dress.

Jackson cooed as Chris processed the shock of seeing the famous faces enter her workplace at this ungodly hour. Jackson was a hopeless romantic, and there was something in the way Jasmine was barefoot, with her face tucked between Jason’s shoulder and neck, that pulled the strings of his shipper heart.

They ordered a sinful amount of waffles and a big strawberry milkshake with two straws. Jackson was trying not to cry of cuteness as he prepared the shake, sneaking some Valentine’s exclusive heart shaped sprinkles over the whipped cream.

They sat on the furthest corner, in a place where they could hide and canoodle in peace without giving a show out of the window.

But Chris and Jackson could still see them. And hear them.

“Should we—”

“Let them be,” Jackson stopped her hand from reaching her phone for the tenth time since the couple entered Denny’s. “Seriously, they are not hurting anybody.”

Chris made a face. “As long as they don’t get naked…”

Fortunately for everyone, they didn’t get naked. In fact, they kept their hands to themselves — if you didn’t count the two times they stopped talking and started making out for a moment there, then back to talking, or eating, in the girl’s case.

Because Jasmine could eat. And the lovestruck Wayne kid watched her like she hung the moon as she devoured her last waffle with a satisfied moan.

Chris had to look away when the kissing started again.

“I feel like we need to take a photo.”

“Why?” Jackson frowned at her.

“To have proof that this happened?”

“We have the security footage.”

Chris roller her eyes. “You know they don’t work and are only to scare away common thieves.”

“Eh.” Jackson shrugged. They weren’t paid enough to care. “Yeah, one photo won’t hurt anybody.”

Chris lifted her phone, snapped a photo of the pair and quickly checked that it was good.

It was good. She had managed to capture the lovebirds looking at each other, Jasmine talking and gesturing with one hand while the other was clasped with his over the table; Jason sipping what was left of the milkshake, leaning back on the crappy seat of their booth, eyes fixed on her mouth.

“Heh.” Jackson was looking over her shoulder at the photo. “We could sell this for a big sum of money.” At his coworker’s glare, he quickly jumped to add: “Not that we are going to! It’s just that this is such an exclusive… “Love blooms at Denny’s” or something, can you imagine the publicity?”

Yeah.

It was such good publicity.

With the McDonalds opening right on the other side of the street and the Taco Bell setting up down the road, business had been a little slow lately; and Chris was starting to think that her boss was considering that two people for the night shift was one too many.

With a heavy heart, she opened twitter and switched to the Denny’s twitter account. They didn’t have a proper CM for the Gotham branch, so she and Jackson sometimes did a bit of that work. For free, of course.

I’m sorry. You guys are the cutest, but we need this.

She wrote the tweet, attached the picture and hit send before she got too scared.

***

Dick Grayson prided himself as a very calm and put together adult. He was the older brother of a bunch of siblings that needed him, he had led various teams of superheroes while being a powerless human, he had gone to space!

He also prided himself to have outgrown his murderous phase from his Robin days — Nightwing was a new start, a new face, a new beginning. He was his own person beyond Batman’s sidekick.

And yet, he was very tempted to kill someone right now.

Specifically, his little brother.

Dick gripped the steering wheel until his knuckles went white, eyes glaring at the red light as if it had personally offended him.

He wanted to scream.

Last night it was supposed to go smoothly and Jason had decided to choose violence.

He only had one job — dancing with the daughter of this big-name-whoever-that-man-was that had been nagging Bruce for months. The poor dude thought that the girl was his last chance at striking a deal with Bruce Wayne, so he tossed her at them like she was an object and not a human being.

Dick would have felt bad if the girl in question wasn’t so creepy about it. She had this fixation on the Wayne boys, going as far as saying she didn’t care which one of them she ended up with — speak of red flags.

Bruce was aware that this was a very bad idea, but still spun the whole thing as a way to get Jason to participate in family stuff, join the gala, and hopefully meet someone that was a good match for him; not necessarily the rich girl, but maybe someone else at the gala. The last part was implicit, though. Bruce was getting to that age that he wanted to see his children find happiness, and he had made it his mission to ‘nudge Jason in the right direction’.

That’s all cool and fine.

Except that Jason abandoned ship and ran away the moment the event started. It became a wild goose chase trying to get him to do just one dance with the girl to shut up the crusty father, but nooooo Jason had to make it difficult for everyone.

And then—

Bruce said he found Jason and never explained if he was coming back. Or if he was okay. Or if he was running away from the whole gala.

With a girl.

It was that Fenton girl, the one that had been behind Bruce and fighting to get his attention for months. Dick had heard many complaints and stories about the crazy stunts she pulled just to get him to listen to her, manilla folder and tablet in hand, being borderline creepy stalker-ish.

They thought she would calm down and stop once Wayne Enterprises showed their support, once Bruce organized the stupid gala to make it official and gather more support for her cause.

Reforming Arkham. What a joke. There was no saving that place, not even in a million years.

He knew he was being harsh, but Dick had been in Gotham longer than the girl and he knew that there was no way to fix that thing unless you considered burning it down and starting again as ‘reform’. She could fight and throw her life to the cause if she wanted, he wasn’t going to pretend he had the high ground to tell her what to do.

Jasmine had gone for his little brother. That, he couldn’t forgive.

As Dick approached Jason’s apartment building, he could see the twitter messages and the tabloid articles in his mind’s eye.

“Love blooms in the most unexpected places #OnlyInDenny’s” and then the cutest photo of his brother, caught with a rare smile as he looked at the girl. It made his stomach turn when he saw it that morning as he had breakfast. Did Bruce know about this? He must have, Bruce wouldn’t miss something like this.

But why?

It only got worse as more and more people piled on, retweeting the photo and adding their own to the list — people that attended the party and apparently saw them chatting at the food table (Dick knew he had seen her before her speech) and then a blurry photo of the pair dancing and kissing in a balcony.

Dick would have saved the photos if he didn’t feel like crying.

How could she do this? Was it a ploy to ensure Bruce would support her cause? Seduce his poor baby brother and threaten to never let him go if Bruce didn’t comply?

Some tabloids were thinking about his same lines, this morning articles opening with the Denny’s photo and questioning if this was Arkham’s latest plan to gain more power.

Dick wouldn’t put it past an Arkham doctor to go beyond what was morally and legally correct to get what they wanted.

And this bitch had targeted his poor baby brother!

He was fuming as he parked his car, got out and stomped towards the elevator. There, he stumbled onto a frowning young man that was narrowing his eyes at the floor buttons, as if he couldn’t figure out something.

***

Danny was, to put it simply, pissed as hell.

Look.

If his sister had a bit of fun and drank too much and needed to stay there for the night, he wouldn’t have been mad.

If his sister had found a strapping young man or a beautiful woman, he wasn’t judging, to spend the night with, he wouldn't have been mad.

He was pissed because not only she never reported back that she was safe as she promised, but he had to find out she was even alive because twitter was burning down with the news of the pair canoodling at Denny’s at two fucking in the morning.

He hated the photo. His sister, who had left home so beautiful and grown up and put together — his sister looked completely ruined. Her makeup, her hair she had fussed about for hours, her dress she had saved up for to not look out of place in the stupid gala — all of it was ruined.

And she was wearing the idiot’s jacket like she was some kind of prize he had won. Like some kind of claim, as if Jazz were something you could own.

His sister!

He had obsessed looking at photos of them through the whole twitter, getting more and more inciensed as the articles and comments treated his dear sister as if she were some kind of gold digger and social climber — Jazz!! Who only ever wanted to help people in this god forsaken city!

This Jason dude thought he was invincible because he was rich — that if he made a mess, daddy would step in and make it all go away with money.

Danny knew their type. They tried to be bad boys without the consequences, thought that money could buy silence, thought that women were things to conquer and then throw away.

Well then, he was going to give this man a piece of his mind. And maybe give him the scare of a lifetime. Maybe what Jason needed was to get a bit of fear of death into his bones and learn to never touch his older sister again.

But first, find Jazz and make sure she was alright.

He followed her faint ectosignature throughout the city, first trying the stupidly enormous Wayne Manor — overcompensating, in his humble opinion — but then she had clearly left the premises sometime in the middle of the night and went to a nearby Denny’s. From there, he transformed and invisibly followed her signature to a pretty crappy apartment building. Not the kind of place you’d expect a rich boy to live in, and for a hot second Danny worried she had been abandoned in the worst part of the city to die.

Once he got there, he found he had a little problem. He couldn’t pinpoint the floor she was on.

He was glaring at the floor buttons of the elevator when a tall and good looking dude, older than him, stomped into the elevator as if it had offended him somehow.

Just to not look so suspicious, Danny clicked a random floor button. The man looked at him and then at the panel, before huffing and turning the other way.

His breathing was labored and his heartbeat was fast. The man was angry as hell. He also did look out of place in the building. Danny noticed his clothes — a rich boy.

He started to panic.

Was he here for his sister as well?

The elevator doors opened and both stepped into the dirty hallway. Danny sniffled a bit and nodded to himself when he could confirm Jazz was on this floor. He started walking forward, senses extended, and tried to ping her so she would answer back.

C’mon Jazz, he hoped he wasn’t wrong. That she was okay. If something happened to her because he didn’t follow her as Phantom to that gala, like he wanted… he would never forgive himself.

He stopped in front of a nondescript door.

Exactly where the angry man was about to knock.

Both looked at each other.

“Who are you?” The man finally asked. Danny lifted an eyebrow. The other narrowed his eyes at him. “Why are you here?”

Danny considered his options. “I’m looking for my sister.”

This was, apparently, the wrong answer.

“YOU!” Danny jumped at the scream.

“Me?” He squeaked.

“You and your damn sister—!”

“Hey, watch it!” Danny had to make a conscious effort to stop his eyes from glowing. “How do you know my sister?”

“She— She seduced my brother!” The stranger’s face was contorted by fury. “I don’t know what you guys want, but leave my baby brother alone!”

“Excuse me?” Danny crossed his arms. “My sister would never! She's the cutest and the nicest person I know!”

“Ah yeah? And how do you explain—”

“Your brother is the one that must have seduced her!” Danny narrowed his eyes at the stranger. “I know she’s from a small town and that the shiny bad boy routine is all the rage around here, but leave my sister alone!”

“Bad boy routine—” The man was taken aback. “Excuse you, your sister is the one that used some kind of mind control on my brother!”

“Mind control?” Danny scoffed. “No, no, no. He’s the one that targeted her! It's not her fault she has a weakness for motorcycle riding leather jacket wearing guys! All we had was yee-haw boys and football players!"

The door behind them opened.

“What the fuck is going on?” A new voice grumbled.

There, on the door, was a tank of a man. He was tall, taller than the stranger he had been arguing with, and with wide shoulders and muscular arms casually placed on the door and on the door frame, using his body to shield what was inside from their view.

He was the man that had taken his sister, Danny recognized him. Also, he was shirtless.

Danny squared up for a fight. “Where is my sister.” He demanded.

“Danny?”

It was her voice indeed, coming from inside the apartment. Danny wanted to die all over again.

“For fucks sake—” He tired to push the man so he could enter the apartment. “Jazz! Are you okay?”

He heard her laugh nervously.

Oh no.

“Let me iiiiin!” Danny pushed again at the man blocking the entrance, but he didn’t budge. The halfa didn’t want to resort to violence or ghost strength, but…

“The fuck are you?” The scoundrel glared at him.

“Danny, I’m fine!” There was a lot of noise, a sound of something hitting something, a quiet ‘ouch!’ and soon his sister was close to the door. “See? I’m totally fine!”

She was fine, alright.

She was also wearing a hoodie that clearly didn’t belong to her, it was way too large on her and the lower hem reached her knees. It was one of Gotham’s vigilantes merch — the Red Hood — all black with the red bat symbol on her chest.

It was also the only thing she was wearing.

Danny felt like spontaneously combusting right there and then.

“Jazz, are you fucking naked under that?”

He vaguely heard the other two men choke in a gasp, but his whole attention was on his sister.

She was blushing. “I am certainly not.” She looked away. Danny followed her eyes and saw her beautiful green dress reduced to a pile of fabric on the floor. “I just needed something more comfortable to sleep in, and Jay was kind enough to lend me something.”

“Jay,” the man he encountered in the elevator murmured under his breath, as if he couldn’t believe she just said that.

“It’s okay,” she turned to look at this ‘Jay’, “he’s my little brother.”

‘Jay’ seized up Danny, as if he were trying to determine if he was a threat. “Huh, he is just like how you described him.”

Danny let the disdain show in his face. “What’s that supposed to mean?”

He would fight this dude if he had to. He wasn’t afraid of fighting someone bigger or stronger than him — he wasn’t afraid of revealing his ghostly identity if it meant he could defend his sister’s honor.

“Okay. Let’s stop.” Jazz placed her hands on ‘Jay’s arm and he let her remove him from the door. Then, she put a hand on Danny’s shoulder and led him into the apartment, her eyes wide as she pointed first at them and then at Danny’s face.

Oh right. Glowy eyes, bad.

Danny breathed in, breathed out. No need to blow the whole thing out of proportion.

“What the hell were you thinking?” The man from the elevator was growling at his brother as he entered the apartment as well. “An Arkham doctor? Seriously?”

“Any problem with that?” Jazz heard that, of course, and she was very proud of her work at the Asylum, regardless of the fame.

The stranger turned towards her, crossing his arms when Jazz did the same.

“Well, excuse me for being cautious when the likes of you usually turn out to be real psychos.”

“The ‘likes of me’?” She narrowed her eyes, moving to take a step closer to the man.

Danny tensed. The stranger tensed. ‘Jay’ tensed, walking quickly between the girl and his brother, his eyes fixed on hers and only hers.

“Jazz, my brother is an idiot but a well-meaning idiot. We’ve had a lot of troubles with doctors from Arkham in the past, so don’t hold it against him for being cautious.”

It was quick and quite scary how Jazz was disarmed in the blink of an eye. Danny had never seen her deflate so quickly once she was in ‘I’m going to kick your ass’ mode. The halfa looked at this ‘Jay’ person, watching how his eyes were unmoving from Jazz’s, silently talking with her with a deep understanding that didn’t fit in a one-night stand or a simple fling — it was more like real love.

Oh shit, he felt his usually quiet heart start beating faster, what have you done, Jazzy?

“Okay,” she finally said, taking a deep breath. She walked around Jay and looked up at the stranger with a controlled smile. “My name is Jasmine Fenton, Mr. well-meaning idiot, and I’m sorry if my career of choice has brought up past fears and memories.” She extended her hand to the man.

He took it, a bit dazed. “Dick Grayson, nice to meet you.”

Jay and Danny started cackling at the same time. Danny really loved when his sister gave the worst backhanded compliments and pleasantries with her sweet voice and sharp smile. She could be ruthless and scary, and he loved that about her.

He glanced at the scoundrel, and by the way he looked so softly at his sister, he assumed that he loved that too.

Okay, the man came off as big and scary but Danny couldn’t have hallucinated how his eyes followed her smile as she patted Dick’s arm; or how they stayed on her as she walked back to where Jay was chuckling at the situation.

Danny couldn’t look away from the way she easily took his hand, the way the man responded with a little squeeze like it was an unconscious reaction, like it was the most normal thing in the world.

He glanced at Dick, who had seen the same thing, with the same dawning horror Danny was feeling passing behind his eyes.

“Why didn’t you text me?” Despite trying not to, the hurt was obvious in Danny’s voice.

Jazz flinched. “I was going to! I just… forgot.” She winced. “And then we came back here and I got, uh— distracted.”

Dick cringed at the same time Danny did.

“Not like that!” Jazz's face was getting more and more red as she tried to explain. “We were talking about Pride and Prejudice and I said the 2005 adaptation was the best and Jay said it has been a while since he saw it and—”

“And you had sex with the movie on?” Dick was making a face, but wasn’t shocked by the news.

“What the fuck, Richard?” His sister’s not-boyfriend-but-maybe-yes (and wasn’t that a thought) glared at his brother.

“What? I didn’t know you had such weird kinks, but I support you.”

Jazz facepalmed with her free hand, her face red up to the tip of her ears. “This is a disaster.”

“I can’t deal with this without a shirt on,” Jay grumbled, his cheeks also a bit red. He turned towards Jazz. “I’m getting you some clothes, if that’s okay?”

“Do you really have anything my size?”

“I have nosy siblings that like to leave their shit around my place.” He rolled his eyes. “Be right back. Don’t murder anyone while I’m gone.”

“I’ll try not to,” her smile was cheeky, like it was some kind of private joke.

They have private jokes and everything, now. Oh joy. Danny was ecstatic (sarcasm).

“Where’s your phone?” Danny quickly tried to redirect the conversation once the man disappeared down the hallway to another room. Jazz blinked as she turned to look at him. “Phone. Instrument to call people. Where is it?”

“Right here, in my… purse…” He saw the moment it dawned on her that her purse was not in the apartment, as she looked at where her dress was on the floor. She smiled, rubbing the back of her head. “I think I left it at Wayne's Mansion.”

“Manor.” Dick talked for the first time after watching them interact. “Not a mansion.”

Danny couldn’t care less about the name of the fancy house. “Big ass house with too many rooms, yeah. Semantics.”

Jazz giggled.

“I think Alfred knows where the purse might be, we usually store lost objects in the same room.”

“Alfred?”

“Our butler.” He answered Jazz.

Danny felt a shiver go down his spine. Once again he wondered why his dear sister decided to get involved with these people.

But again, looking around him, he found that the little apartment was well used and lived in. The scoundrel (he was being mean by still calling him that in his head, he knew, sue him) might have flown away from the flock and tried to live apart from the riches and the pompous lifestyle, which he could understand and respect.

Damn. He couldn’t stay angry at the dude anymore.

Stay strong, Danny. You need to instill the fear of death on the guy in the most epic shovel talk ever seen.

“We say ‘butler’ but really the man is more like a grandpa for all of us.” Jay added as he walked in, now dressed with jeans and a simple black shirt on, and a bundle of clothes in his hands. “I got a bit of everything, pick whatever you want.”

“Thank you!” Jazz said, turning briefly to fish her bra from the crumpled dress on the floor, and Danny wanted to delete the knowledge that she had taken her clothes off last night in a stranger’s apartment.

Look.

His sister was a grown woman and she was free to sleep with and/or canoodle with whoever she wanted — he would approve more or less, but unless he suspected her partner had ill intentions towards her, he trusted his sister’s choices.

That didn’t mean he wanted the details. He had enough with the photos of them kissing that people posted on the internet.

“We have a situation.” Dick whispered to his brother, thinking that Danny couldn’t hear.

“Really? You come here to bother me for that?”

“No. Not that kind of situation.” Danny was making a point of looking away. “A civilian situation.”

“And it concerns me because?”

There was a pause. Danny sneaked a look and saw Dick regarding his brother with the dread of the witness of a disaster about to happen.

“You guys were seen. At Denny’s. And someone took a photo. It kinda blew up twitter and the whole internet.”

“And now people are calling my sister a gold digger and a social climber. Among other horrible things.” Danny gave up the pretense of not listening in and walked up to the brothers.

To his credit, Jay looked genuinely shocked. Then sad, angry and worried. And lastly, absolutely furious.

“I’m going to kill someone.”

Danny nodded, liking him a bit more. “And I’ll help you.”

When the man redirected his eyes at him Danny didn’t miss the slight green shine on them. Okay, he could see why his sister took interest in him now. Also, he won’t ever let her live down the fact that she was dating someone ghost-related after renouncing her ghost hunter heritage so hard and so loudly.

“I think we haven’t been properly introduced. My name is Jason Todd,” he extended his hand. Danny took it. “The black sheep of the Wayne family.”

Dick groaned at his words. Danny smiled.

“Daniel Fenton. Call me Danny. If you call me Daniel I’ll make you regret it.” If his handshake was a bit harsher he didn’t show — not that Jason didn’t grip his hand harder in response.

“Oh good, you guys are getting along!” Jazz sounded ecstatic as she rejoined them, now dressed with some jeans and a band shirt that was a bit big on her, but just enough to be fashionable. “The boots fit, by the way!”

“Aren’t those the boots Steph had been looking for like crazy for weeks?” Dick was frowning as he took in her outfit. “And that’s Tim’s shirt?”

“Yeah, Timbo is small. Who would have guessed.” Jason’s smile was all teeth.

“I can still change? I don’t want to upset any siblings.”

“Nah. If they missed these so much then they wouldn’t have left them in my apartment.” Jason’s eyes went over her body, but Danny didn’t think it was creepy. “It looks better on you, though.”

Jazz blushed. “Thanks, I guess.” She pushed her hair behind her ear, smiling at him.

Dick and Danny exchanged a look. This was ridiculous. It was cute, but ridiculous.

“Let’s go get your stuff back and then go home,” Danny interrupted the couple, who turned to look at him at the same time. Huh. “I didn’t eat breakfast in my rush to make sure you weren’t dying in a ditch.” Jazz made a face at this.

“You can get something to eat at the Manor,” Dick rubbed his face, his frustration with the whole situation showing. “We need to talk with Dad, Jay. The scandal is getting a bit out of hand and we need to get our story straight.”

“Scandal?” Jazz’s eyes were wide. “What scandal?”

Instead of an explanation, Dick quickly pulled his phone, the damn tweet that started all of this opened already. Jazz took the phone and looked at the picture with recognition in her eyes; then, she scrolled down at the responses and the pictures more people were sharing, theories about the scandal, and their unsolicited opinion about the couple.

It broke his heart, but his sister needed to know the truth. He saw tears gather in her eyes before she closed them as she gave Dick his phone back.

“I knew there would be some kind of backlash, but this is ridiculous.” The three ignored the way her voice broke a little. “I hate this so much.”

She let Jason pull her into his arms, her eyes still closed as she controlled her breathing.

“We can fix this,” Dick hesitated for a moment before putting a hand on her shoulder. “Is not the first scandal the family has been involved in. Haven’t you met our father?”

She opened her eyes, but she wasn’t amused.

“I am not a model or a celebrity looking for easy money, Dick. I wasn’t even liked before all of this. I am not stupid, I know the kind of fame Arkham has already, and I know that people are just waiting for me to give up the Reform or snap and become the next Harley Quinn.”

Dick winced. He had accused her of the same thing less than an hour ago.

“I’m sorry.” He said, not knowing what else to say.

The arms around Jazz squeezed her harder for a moment. Jason leaned in to subtly kiss her hair and whisper in her ear, but Danny heard him perfectly.

“Arson is still on the table, darling.”

She smiled at this. It was small, but the shadows in her eyes were slowly fading away.

Danny decided he wanted this man around forever, especially if he could hold her so tightly that she wouldn’t fall into despair and spiral into a breakdown like Danny would expect her to do in a situation like this.

“Okay, let’s focus on what we can fix right now. We are going to the Manor and get your stuff, then regroup and make a plan. We’ll fix this, Jasmine, I promise.”

She hummed against Jason’s chest before patting his arm to signal that she was okay now. He let her go but kept one hand on her bicep in a light grip.

“Jazz is fine,” when she smiled at Dick she looked a bit better, more determined. Centered. “And sure, let’s go.”

***

It took a bit of arguing, but finally the four of them piled into Dick’s car and were on their way to the Manor.

Jason crossed his arms, really not at all bothered at being denied sitting with Jazz on the backseat, no sir, he was not mad.

Who was he kidding? He wanted to sit with her — not for nefarious reasons, mind you, but because after spending the last… who the fuck cares, but the time with her had been the best he had in forever. He remembered being twelve and soaring over the rooftops of Gotham feeling like a superhero while wearing the Robin costume — well, something like that. But different.

He just felt alive.

Funny how things can change in one night.

He tuned out the siblings arguing and Dick asking whatever questions to make friendly conversation, his mind miles away, reliving everything that happened since he made the smart decision to run away from the stupid gala with Jazz.

She was… How to describe it? Jazz was like a ray of sunshine and the taste of lightning at the same time. She was kind, but not naïve, and very sharp of tongue and mind. She had the craziest thoughts about things and the most heated opinions about menial stuff, completely ready to throw down when they argued about ice cream flavors. Yet her touch was soft on his hair, on his face, on his chest; like she wasn’t sure she was allowed to touch but unable to stop her hands.

She also found his sarcasm hilarious. She said a few times that he reminded her of her brother, and he could see now why — Danny was sassy as fuck and wasn’t afraid of saying what he thought out loud.

He actually liked him. It was obvious that he cared a lot about his sister and he had been completely ready to fight him when he thought that Jason had done something bad to her. Good, but unnecessary.

As if he could hurt her in any way.

He wasn’t stupid — he knew what it looked like from the outside. Son of the richest man in Gotham runs away with her and she doesn't answer her phone the whole night. He should have said something, he knew she lived with her brother in a tiny apartment (she complained a lot about how things broke down all the time) and he would expect her to be back in the morning; but he completely forgot the world existed outside their little happy bubble.

He didn’t even notice the Denny’s staff taking the photo. Bruce will have his head for being so careless. But the damage was already done, sadly.

He didn’t regret anything, he decided. It didn’t matter what happened next, how they fixed the scandal, he had decided to give them a chance.

Jason blushed as he watched the city go by from the window.

‘Them’... Jazz had been open to the idea of dating when they talked about it, she had said she liked his company a lot, she had kissed him and let him kiss her like she wanted a ‘them’ to exist.

But now he didn’t want to get his hopes up. After what happened, after the damage of just being with him had done to her and her reputation, he wouldn’t blame her if she regretted last night or didn’t want anything to do with him anymore.

Last night…

He smiled, thinking about how nervous he had been when they finally arrived at his apartment. It’s true that he was the one that said they should go there and watch the movie, and she was completely into it; but he wasn’t sure if she wanted to just watch the movie or maybe it was an excuse to make out some more and take their relationship further.

When he shut the door and the reality of the situation dawned on them, she was the first to laugh and say that she wasn't the kind of gal that jumped into bed on the first date.

He felt… relieved? Jason wasn’t the kind of guy that brought girls to his place, either; hell, he barely let his own family in there and that was only because they managed to bypass his security every damn time.

Jazz felt special. She wasn’t the kind of girl you ‘just’ do anything with, she made it her own, a little adventure at her side. When (if, a little voice in his head corrected him) they decided to get physical, it had to be special.

So they got comfy and watched the movie, and nothing more. If he got any personal pleasure from the way his own merch looked on her, well, that was just a picture he would treasure forever in his memory.

He didn’t mind it either when she got cuddly and let her hands run all over his chest, or when she was delighted after he took off the shirt to let her squish her cheek against his skin and kiss the scars she found there — surprisingly, not even the autopsy scar phased her, as she kissed it with the same care as she did with all the others.

Somewhere in the early hours, close to dawn, he fell asleep feeling loved and warm with the comforting presence of Jazz in his arms, the movie completely forgotten.

“Thinking something funny?”

Jason turned to glare at his brother, who glanced at him with a knowing smirk before looking back at the road.

The bickering coming from the siblings stopped.

“And you!” Danny said as if he was following a thought, making Jason look over his seat at the siblings. “What are your intentions with my sister?”

Jazz groaned, punching Danny on the arm. “Are you seriously doing this?”

“Is this a shovel talk?” Jason lifted his eyebrows, glancing at Jazz to see if she had some kind of insight on what to do. She smiled, looking as uncomfortable as he felt.

“Yes. Now, what are your intentions with my sister? Huh? Is this a one time thing or do you plan on leading her on with your bad boy charm?”

“Danny, stop!” She punched him again, but the other didn’t even budge.

“No fighting in my car, please.” Dick wasn’t even phased. His car had seen some sibling on sibling violence before, enough to warrant the rule. “Don’t make me tap the sign.”

Indeed, when he pulled the sun visor down, there was a paper with “No violence while the car is moving” written on it. It was Alfred’s handwriting.

“Jay, please ignore my little brother—”

Danny leaned in, getting closer to his face. “Answer me.”

Jason smiled. The kid had guts. “Or what.”

“Or I’ll kick your ass.”

“No fighting, at least not until we get to the Manor.” Dick was giving nervous glances at them.

“Hmm,” Jason hummed, moving a little to look around the threatening little brother and get Jazz’s attention. “Maybe I want a more long term thing. What about that option?”

Danny narrowed his eyes, but he only saw it from the corner of his eye. Jazz was blushing at his words, nodding in agreement. He nodded back.

“Then you’ll better treat her well, punk.” He spit the word like it was an insult. Dick coughed a laugh at the situation.

“Or what?” Jason repeated, poking the proverbial bear.

Danny wasn’t amused. “Or I’ll find you, and I’ll make you wish you were dead.”

And he saw it — the green glow coming through the blue. If Jazz hadn’t been honest about her brother's situation, he would have been shocked at the revelation. He would have felt betrayed and scared, suspecting the siblings and questioning if they had connections with the Al Ghuls of the Lazarus Pits somehow.

But she had been honest, because she believed in them, because she wanted to start something with him.

His smile was all teeth when he looked at the other. “Oh. Been there, done that.”

By the way Danny froze and let his body fall back to his seat, Jason knew his eyes had turned green as well. Jazz looked between the two, waiting to see what her brother would do.

He scoffed, but there wasn’t any heat behind it. His eyes went back to blue. “This isn’t over, loverboy. You haven’t proven your worth to me yet.”

“Danny.” Jazz growled in warning.

“What do you need? A duel?”

“Do you have a sword?” Danny smirked, really liking the idea.

Jason’s answering smile was equally amused. “Yeah. Lots. Name a place and time and I’ll be there.”

“Jason.” Dick growled, probably against him abusing their training and skills from their other life to mess with civilians.

“What? Apparently sword fighting is an appropriate bonding activity with my new brother-in-law.”

He chuckled when his words made everyone in the car cringe.

“Please don’t say that again.” Danny crossed his arms, frowning. “You are still on fucking thin ice.”

“So, no duel?”

“No, no, the duel is still on,” Danny nodded quickly. “Let’s exchange numbers so we can keep in touch.”

So they did, while Jazz watched in disbelief.

“Alright! We are here!”

Everyone was quiet as the big metal front entrance opened automatically to let the car pass. Jason was used to the grandiose and the absurd display of wealth, but by the tiny gasp from the backseat he remembered that his girlfriend (was it okay to call her that? He needed to ask Jazz, they didn’t exactly define what they were last night) wasn’t raised in a mansion by the richest man in the city.

“It’s so pretty!” She admired.

Dick beamed. “Thanks! B will love to hear that. It’s been his family’s home for generations.”

“But weren’t you here last night?” Jason asked, turning around to see her look out of the window as they approached the main entrance.

“I was too busy trying not to throw up or make a fool of myself to look at the decor.”

“That’s why you were hiding at the food table?”

“No, I was hiding because if one more dude looked at my boobs instead of my eyes I was going to resort to violence.”

Maybe it was her deadpanned voice or Danny’s instant cackling, but it made Jason start laughing as well.

“I would have loved to see that.”

“Then we wouldn’t have met.”

Her teal eyes sparkled as she held his gaze. His lips curved slightly. It was easier to smile around her. “And what a sad world that would be.”

She opened her mouth to say something, but Danny leaned in to get in the way of their locked eyes, his mouth in a tight smile, shaking his head. Jason lifted his eyebrows, responding to the challenge.

“You guys are just the cutest.” Dick interrupted whatever was about to go down. He had parked the car in his designated place and killed the engine. “Please stay forever.” His words were directed this time at Jazz, since he turned to look at her. “It’s been a while since I’ve seen Jay smile so much in so little time.”

Jazz quickly opened her door and walked out of the car to hide her face. Dick jumped out to follow her, leaving Danny and Jason behind in the car.

The two looked at each other, finally alone and without their siblings in the way. Danny sighed loudly and unbuckled his seatbelt. Jason did the same and turned to fully face him, knowing that he was going to talk.

“Look,” Danny was serious, his shoulders relaxed but in a forced way, like he was doing the effort to stay calm. “I love my sister. She’s everything to me.” Jason nodded, despite not knowing where this was going. Danny looked at Jazz and Dick talking on their way to the front door. “This whole scandal thing will hurt her a lot — I know you didn’t mean to!” He quickly added when he saw Jason open his mouth. “I believe you, don’t worry. I thought you were a bad person but I was wrong and what I’m trying to say is,” he passed hand through his hair in a nervous gesture, “uh, I’m sorry. I think you are cool now.”

“Thanks?”

“Also Jazz really likes you so I guess I’ll have to get used to having you around.”

“I’ll stick around as long as she wants me to.”

Danny did a weird smile at his words, like he couldn’t believe how sappy it sounded but was glad he said the right thing.

“And just so you know, you aren’t her first dead boyfriend.” His smile turned mischievous. “I guess she really has a type, huh.”

“The motorcycle guy?”

“She told you about Johnny?”

“She just said you hated him and that you would chew her ear off for being with another guy with a bike.”

Danny made a face. “I don’t hate him for being a bad boy with a bike and a leather jacket — he tried to use my sister’s body as a vessel to bring his girlfriend back. Also he’s a total jerk and tried to kill me multiple times.”

“What is even your life?”

“Buddy,” Danny put a hand on Jason’s shoulder, his smile mocking him, “you have no idea what you got yourself into.”

Well, that’s ominous.

Without having anything else to say, Danny exited the car. Jason followed him, and soon the two caught up with their siblings waiting for them in front of the entrance.

As if they were expected, Alfred opened the door before Dick could ring the doorbell.

“Master Richard, Master Jason,” he nodded at the brothers. His eyes then went to Jazz and her Danny, analyzing them in the way that Alfred usually registered a new person in the Manor to take care of. He smiled softly. “Miss Fenton, Mister Fenton, we were expecting you.”

“Of course,” Jason rolled his eyes.

“Good morning, Alf! Is B awake yet?”

“Master Bruce is waiting for you at the breakfast table.” He nodded at Dick. “He already sent a message to the PR team and wishes to discuss plans regarding last night's scandal.”

Jazz wilted a little at the mention of the scandal. Jason quickly put a hand around her shoulders in silent support. He didn’t regret anything, he wanted her to know.

Alfred’s eyes zeroed on the gesture, the corner of his lips curving a little. He moved to the side to let the group in, stopping the couple as he closed the doors behind them.

“I believe this belongs to you, miss.” The butler presented Jazz a small green handbag.

“My purse!” She took it. “How did you know?”

“It’s my job to know what happens inside these walls.”

Jason leaned in and fake-whispered in her ear. “Don’t question it. Alfred just knows everything, it’s his superpower.”

“Indeed,” the older man hummed. “A very useful skill since this family’s children tend to start mischief when their father turns his back. Someone has to make sure the place doesn’t burn down, after all”

“It was an accident, Alfred.”

“Keep trying to lie to me, Master Jason.” He chuckled as he walked away.

It worked. Jazz was giggling and a bit more relaxed after the exchange, her face smiling up at him.

“Is arson your response to everything?”

“I didn’t burn anything, I swear. Not on purpose.”

She hummed and narrowed her eyes, still smiling, probably not believing him. He leaned in and kissed the smile, unable to stop himself now that they were virtually alone.

“About the—”

“It’s okay,” she stopped him, the hand that wasn’t grabbing her purse now placed gingerly on his cheek. “I’m tougher than I look.”

He didn’t doubt that. He wanted to ask if she was still open to the idea of dating, but shouting from the dining room reminded them of the situation at hand.

Once they got to the dining room where the family usually ate breakfast, it was filled with people. Jason had half a mind to turn around and run for it, but he still had his arm around Jazz’s shoulders and somehow she sensed he was going to run, so she sneaked her arm around his waist to prevent him from getting away.

Bruce was at the head of the table, sipping his coffee and looking like he didn’t sleep as much as he needed. Selina, at his right, was looking over Tim’s shoulder, who was sitting next to her, as he typed on the screen of his tablet, showing her something. Cass was sitting next to Tim, but she was content with only watching everyone else as she sipped her orange juice.

On Bruce’s other side, Damian was quietly eating pancakes and watching with distrust as Dick animatedly talked with Danny.

“Oh, there they are.”

Everyone got quiet at Selina’s words and turned to look at them.

“So it’s true?” Tim narrowed his eyes. “And isn’t that my shirt?”

“Finder keepers, Timmy.”

Jason started walking again, ignoring the stares, and guided Jazz towards where her brother was already sitting. Cass caught his eye after she looked at the siblings, her beaming smile making him calm down a little. If she approved then he must be doing something right.

“Hi,” Jazz waved her hand as she sat down, her smile completely forced and trying hard to not look nervous. “I’m Jazz.”

“Well hello, dear,” Selina looked as put together as always even in her black silk pajamas and slightly tousled hair. “Glad to finally meet you in person.”

Jason sat down next to Jazz, deliberately the furthest from Bruce, who was looking at him with raised eyebrows. He held his analyzing gaze, squaring his shoulders for a fight. He didn’t want to fight Bruce, not right now, not in front of his (probably, but most certainly) girlfriend. But he would, if the situation required it.

“Glad to be here, although I would have preferred meeting you in less… uh, awful conditions,” Jazz nodded at the older woman.

Bruce turned his attention to the siblings, specifically Jazz. “Dick already explained part of it. Some kind of misunderstanding?” He said.

The man in question lowered his head a little, feeling ashamed.

“I’m not mind controlling anybody, I’m not a villain and I do not have nefarious plans involving seducing anybody. Just to be clear.”

“Arkham would benefit a lot with the popularity, though.” Tim shrugged, his eyes cold as he regarded her. “The Reform would—”

“This has nothing to do with—!” Jazz closed her eyes and took a deep breath. She relaxed her shoulders. She was used to reigning in her emotions. When she opened her eyes they were so cold and uncaring that Jason thought he was seeing someone else. “My Reform plans did not involve anything from the Waynes beyond the public support, which it already has, and I am deeply grateful for.” She nodded at Bruce, who nodded back. “You’d know if you actually read my report.”

She crossed her arms, smirking in victory when she caught Tim in his bullshit. As CEO he was pursued as much as Bruce and she emailed him her powerpoints and written reports many times, receiving promises of them being read.

Bruce sipped his coffee, hiding a smile.

There was a loud sound, like a jingle of sorts, and Jazz jumped in her seat.

“Oops, sorry. I must have left my phone on last night.” She put her purse over the table and fished inside it for the device. It still had some charge, and she had a ton of notifications and missed calls.

“About those plans to deal with the scandal?” Jason tried to steer the conversation away from Jazz.

“Yes,” Bruce nodded, putting his cup on the table and interlacing his fingers. “We didn’t know what route was the most beneficial for all of us, so the PR team prepared a few scenarios; but now I can see we need to make a few adjustments.”

“Adjustments.” He raised an eyebrow.

Bruce looked away in shame. “I thought— well, um…”

“We weren’t sure how serious you were about the girl.” Selina took pity on her boyfriend and answered instead. “And since you brought her here…”

Jason glanced at Jazz, but she was too focused on her phone, scrolling through messages.

“You should have seen them, B.” Dick leaned back in his chair. “They are the cutest.”

“It’s painful to watch,” Danny spoke for the first time, nodding his agreement.

Jazz gasped. Everyone looked at her. Her face was completely white, drained, her eyes haunted. Then, she started trembling. Then the blood came rushing back and painted her skin red.

She looked at Jason.

“I’ve been fired.”

“What.”

“Marcel— he said— I mean he called but I wasn’t— ugh, read here.” She gave him her phone, he read the text on the screen, his eyebrows going to his hairline.

“This is illegal.”

Jazz made a sound like a strangled animal and let her head fall to the table, bonking it against the wood. A few seconds later, she stood up with a fake smile.

“Excuse me, I think I have a thing to take care of.”

Quickly, too quick to really let anyone follow her, she exited the dining room and made her way back to the front door. Soon, they heard them slam shut, followed by a very loud:

“MOTHERFUCKER!”

“Uh oh,” Danny stood up as well. “She’s going berserk.”

“What?”

Danny turned to look at Dick, eyes nervously going in the direction his sister had gone. “Jazz is the sweetest sister in the world, but she’s the type of person that bottles up her rage until she goes nuclear. I call it ‘berserk mode’, heh.” He rubbed the back of his neck. “Be right back.” And he bolted out of the room.

Everyone at the table looked at each other for a moment before they nodded and followed the siblings.

By the time Jason was out of the mansion, Jazz was well on her way to the front gates, Danny running behind her and trying to make her stop.

“Jazz, what the hell are you going to do!”

“He has fucked with me for the last time, Danny!”

“And? You are going to walk to his house?”

“If I have to!”

Danny turned to look at Jason once he caught up with him.

“Do something!”

“Like what!”

“I don‘t know, figure it out, you are her boyfriend!”

“Oh, so NOW you acknowledge it!” Jason scoffed. “And you are her brother!”

“Do you really think she’ll listen to ME?”

“Try!”

Danny groaned and ran faster, one hand prepared to grab his sister’s arm to make her stop.

What happened next almost made Jason stop in his tracks — he knew she must have had some training, and sometimes she made a comment about it without really getting into detail; but seeing it in person was a different thing.

Without stopping her stride, she grabbed the hand Danny was going to grab her with, flipped him over her shoulder and slammed him to the ground, the gravel probably digging on the poor man’s skin as he gasped for breath.

“Ow.” He said in a small voice, eyes on the sky. He recovered quickly, since he was up and running again by the time the others caught up with him.

Okay, Jason tried to rethink his strategy. He really didn’t want to be judo slammed in front of the family, but he really didn’t want her to kill anybody, at least not after shouting vague threats in front of Bruce and his paranoia about Arkham doctors.

He got this.

“Jazz, stop.” He said as he got next to her with a few long steps. She didn’t stop, but looked at him. “You can’t kill the guy.”

“Why not.”

“You might get in deeper trouble.” He tried. She lifted an eyebrow, but stopped to hear what he wanted to say. “You’ll need to make sure it doesn’t trace back to you, too. It’s harder than you think.”

Her smile should be nice, but with murder in her eyes it looked rather predatory. “I have my ways.” She patted his cheek, the touch making him shiver and not in a bad way.

“Also, think what will happen next,” he tried again, ignoring his heart beating faster. “You have just been fired, by him. If you kill him the first suspect will be you.”

This got to her — finally! She ignored the group walking up to them (why were they even here if no one was trying to help? Geez), and put a hand on her chin as she thought over his words.

“You are absolutely right.” She said, grabbing his head between her hands, making him lean down a little. He sighed in relief. “You beautiful genius, I just need to ruin his life!”

She kissed him right on the mouth. It was brief, but intense, barely giving him time to put a hand on her waist before she was gone and back on her bloodthirsty way. He stood there with probably a dumb look on his face.

“Unbelievable.” Danny was shaking his head at him as he walked past.

“Oh, she’s delightful.” Selina had a hand on her cheek, clearly enjoying what was going on. “Can we keep her, Bruce?”

The man wasn’t amused. At all. He was looking at the back of the rampaging Jazz with that suspicion he usually saved for Jason.

“Don’t you fucking dare.” He told the man.

If he went full Batman on her he knew there was going to be disaster. She had secrets, he was aware, and he hoped she told him when she was ready. She had the same courtesy with his secrets about his vigilante life, he knew he had told her things that would make someone suspicious of him, but she accepted his deflection and his lies with a gentle smile.

He couldn’t lose her. Not like this.

“She might be dangerous but she is good, B. Trust me.”

Bruce looked like he wanted to say something else, but Jazz had backtracked a bit and walked up to Jason. She grabbed his hand and started dragging him to the front gates, now a short walk away.

“I need you.” Was everything she said, probably regarding some revenge plans she was making in her head, but his heart jumped at her words anyway.

“Uh…” He looked at the others for help, but they were either enjoying the spectacle or talking between them. Fantastic. Just perfect. “What’s the plan?” He asked her.

“I’m just going to speed up my Reform plans a little.”

“What?” He tugged their joined hands, but she didn’t slow down. “What does it have to do with ruining that guy’s life?”

“Not that Reform Project. I meant the real one.”

This made conversation stop. Jason could feel Bruce’s glare on the back of his head.

“The real one?” He asked, nervously looking at Danny, whose shocked expression told him that the guy didn’t know about this.

“Did you really think that Arkham is the kind of place that can be reformed with good intentions and asking pretty please?” She looked at him from the corner of her eye. “No. I had plans. Months and months of meticulous planning… for nothing!”

Her voice cracked at the end. This was important to her. She really cared about fixing that horrible place and now that she was fired—

“I had the documents, the proof I needed. I managed to get records they tried to get rid of.”

“That’s why you asked me…?” Danny left the question unfinished, apparently catching on what she was saying.

She nodded. “I got the victims to talk to me, too. I promised them! I was so close!”

“Victims?” Dick asked.

Jazz jumped, as if she had forgotten they had an audience. She stopped a few steps away from the giganting metal gates and turned to look at the other to the eye.

“Arkham Asylum has a rich history, but what people don't know is how far and how wide the abuse runs in that place.” She tilted her head, taking a breath to calm down a little. Her hand was trembling in Jason’s. “Physical abuse, sexual abuse, sexual assault, violence. Murder.” Her face was a mask of disgust. “Nobody talks about it, nobody cares about what happens to us in that place, as long as the rogues are contained and away from the rest of the nice citizens of Gotham.”

“Us?” Danny murmured, eyes wide.

“That’s not—” Dick tried to step closer.

“Also nobody will talk.” She interrupted him. “Why would we? We are just ‘the crazies from Arkham’. Patients are just insane and the doctors are even worse for believing we can make a difference. Who would trust an Arkham staff member?”

Bruce flinched at her words. By the smirk on her lips, Jazz knew the man didn’t trust her because of her workplace choice.

“I had a plan,” she continued as everyone processed her words. “I had records. Death certificates. Audio and video proof. Everything I needed to make sure that the people involved in the systemic abuse would be unable to hurt anybody else.”

“Why not give it to the police?” Bruce stepped closer to the pair. Jazz looked at him with a raised brow.

“How do you think they get away with it, Mr. Wayne?” Her smile was sad — it wasn’t a secret that the Gotham Police Department was dirty. “I never said that the people involved were only Arkham staff.”

“Jazz, is this why you have the murderboard?” Danny looked conflicted, horrified and kinda proud of his sister. “Why didn’t you tell me?”

“The murderboard is for a side project, don’t worry about it.” Her smile was worrying. “And if I told you, you would have rushed in guns blazing; and to really fix Arkham I needed a more subtle approach.”

She combed back her hair with the hand that wasn’t gripping Jason’s like a lifeline. She was starting to come down from the adrenaline rush, if the trembling of her hands was something to go by.

“Although, thinking about it right now, maybe murder is the better approach.” Her chuckles were shaky. “I just — death is too easy, too little a punishment for what they have done and keep doing, unchecked. I wanted to watch them run around like headless chickens as everything crumbles down around them. That’s phase four.”

“There’s phases?” Jason talked for the first time since she started her rant. He didn’t know if he should feel horrified by the truth or impressed by her careful planning and ruthlessness.

“Phase five was taking control of Arkham and personally firing Marcel,” she smiled up at him. “I wanted to look him in the eyes as he learned it had been me all along.”

Ah. His heart started beating faster as he was unable to look away from her eyes. He knew she could see his cheeks turn a bit red since she was so close, she could feel his heart thumping against his chest.

He had never considered love as a possibility, a real possibility, in his future. Love, marriage, family — those kinds of things were for people that didn’t dedicate their lives to fighting crime, to lies, to violence. He had seen relationships form and collapse in the hero community, nevermind a relationship with a civilian.

But — as she ranted and went off about her plans he couldn’t help but feel he could have a real future with her. That she could understand him in a way that he needed to be understood. That she would listen.

“In any case I could still just ruin his life anyway,” she patted his cheek and looked away, finally letting him breathe. He blinked, as if woken from a spell. “Marcel had threatened to fire me if I ever went public with the dirt I have on him, and guess who doesn’t work at Arkham anymore?”

“You would put a target on your back,” Bruce tried to reason since Jason was still coming back from his own revelation. He didn’t miss the worried look the man gave him. “You could share it with Batman?”

This got her attention.

“Batman?”

“Is not the first time he had to take down an operation as big as this.”

She narrowed her eyes. “I don’t need Batman. I need Bruce Wayne.”

Jason tensed, as did his brothers. Selina was smiling like she was having the time of her life and Cass was watching Jason with a knowing glint in her eye.

“Why is that?” props to the man for keeping his cool. Jazz had all her attention focused on him and how he reacted to her words.

What the fuck was going on?

“Because having Bruce Wayne’s support would make them all sell each other out once I start publishing my findings, of course. Nobody wants to be associated with criminals, not if they want to get in the Waynes’ good graces.”

“Ah. Makes sense.” He relaxed a little, his controlled voice almost completely devoid of the relief he must be feeling.

She narrowed her eyes, stepping closer to Bruce. All her murderous intent gone at the man’s words, now swapped for a deep suspicion. Jason could see the wheels turn behind her eyes.

“Hey, Danny?”

“Yes?”

“What was the thing you said about Batman?”

Bruce and Dick tensed. Selina snickered, probably knowing where this was going.

“That the man doesn’t know when to give up?” Danny’s voice was exasperated, as if it was something he said often.

“No, the other thing.”

“That he looks like a furry?”

Someone snorted.

“The other other thing.”

Her brother’s face illuminated with recognition. “The chin scar thing?”

“Yeah.”

“Oh, I see.”

“What are you talking about?” Dick tried to laugh, but Jazz turned her inquisitive eyes on him.

“Interesting deflection, but it won’t work on me.” She turned towards Bruce. “You are Batman.”

There was no question, no need for confirmation — she just knew.

Also, it’s true that Bruce had a distinct scar in his chin from a nasty fight, but it had healed so well that it was virtually invisible unless you knew where to look or had the chance to see him up close.

They said that Batman had the scar, and the only people that could have gotten so close are the family and —

And that meta that Bruce was losing his mind about, because he slipped away every time and was seemingly impossible to catch.

He appeared around a year ago and at first he just floated and flew around the city. Then he started fighting crime and generally making a nuisance of himself. Most recently the meta, or Phantom, as he introduced himself, liked to mess around with the vigilantes and mock them because they couldn’t catch him.

“That the man doesn’t know when to give up?” Danny sounded like he spoke from experience.

“My brother came to live with me in Gotham a year ago. He said he didn’t want me to be lonely in such a big city.” Jazz had commented when he asked her about her brother. “He thinks he can protect me from everything.”

Jason looked at Danny, who winced and took a step back, tensing under all the sudden stares from the vigilantes.

“Jazz?”

“Oops.”

“Yeah, oops.” He glared at her sister. “Did you really need to do that?”

“I…” Jason looked at her, at how she was looking at his family like she was seeing them for the first time. She turned to look at him, her beautiful teal eyes muddled with the realization dawning on them.

He didn’t know who let go first, but suddenly his hand itched with the absence of her warmth.

“Jazz, we need to go.” Danny tried to approach her, but when he took a step all the attention was on him. Jason saw Damian get ready to pounce.

“I can’t—” She was still looking at Jason, tears gathering in her eyes. Why was she crying?

“Jazz c’mon!”

“Tim, prepare the containment cell.” That was Batman’s voice.

“Jay?” Her breaths came short. She was panicking. She didn’t want to leave.

If she left now, he had the feeling he wouldn't see her again. He couldn't let her go.

“Everyone, stop.”

Jason stepped between the siblings and his family, straightening his back and crossing his arms to take a stance that made him a human wall. He usually did that to intimidate and instill fear in his targets, but he was using it now to protect someone important.

“Jason, move.”

“No.”

“He is an unknown meta—”

“I said, no.” He narrowed his eyes.

“Your judgment is being clouded. Step aside.” Jason enjoyed that Bruce couldn’t look down on him anymore when he tried to order him around.

“They haven’t hurt anybody.”

Jason knew he was right, and Bruce didn’t have anything to refute him. One year, and the unknown had only done good deeds around the city, even helping around the bats when the situation looked dire.

“Jay’s right, B.” Dick joined him in the wall between the others and the siblings. Cass was right behind him.

“They are not bad people.” She said, crossing her arms, somehow managing to look down on Bruce despite being much shorter than the man.

Selina walked up to the group and smiled softly at her boyfriend. “I think we should just sit down and clear any misunderstanding.”

Outnumbered, Bruce breathed deeply and pinched the bridge of his nose, catching Damian just as he tried to sneak past him to jump at the meta.

“Alright.” He glared at Selina, who looked triumphant. “It’s too early for this drama.”

“I told you she’d make things interesting.”

Jason tuned out the conversation and turned around, finding Danny trying to console his sister. Jazz was crouching, still hyperventilating, hiding her face behind her hair, but he could hear her sniffling.

Danny looked up at him. “Thank you.”

He nodded in acknowledgement. “How is she?”

“I’m fine,” Jazz said before her brother could respond. “I just need a minute.”

“Can I touch you?”

She nodded, sniffling a little.

Jason picked her up and easily settled her in his arms in a princess carry. She would have made a comment on it, like she did when he carried her piggyback last night, but she was quiet as she hid her face on his shoulder.

“We are going to get some water and fresh air. Be right back.”

He ignored the protests, Selina’s ‘aww’ and Danny’s ‘for fucks sake’ and speed walked all the way back to the house.

Instead of going through the front door, he went around the building until he was at the kitchen door, the one that Alfred always left unlocked so the children (i.e., everyone) could come and go seemingly unnoticed. The butler would know, of course, but the point was not crossing paths with the inhabitants of the house.

Once in the kitchen, Jason gingerly placed his cargo in one of the kitchen stools and went to grab a glass of water for her.

She had been quiet the whole time, and she stayed quiet as she drank her water.

“I messed up.” She finally said after she gulped down the water, her voice hoarse.

“No, you didn’t.”

“I did.” She sighed, putting in the now empty glass on the counter. Then, she combed her hair away from her face with her fingers. “It wasn’t my secret to reveal.”

“Eh,” he shrugged. “I was going to tell you anyway. Eventually.”

“I also meant my brother.” She slumped her shoulders, eyes watery. “I’ve kept that secret for so long…”

“Hey,” he hugged her once the tears started flowing. “It will be okay.”

“I don’t feel okay.” Her voice was muffled against his chest. “I’m sorry.”

He didn’t know what else to say, but let her listen to his heart and the kitchen clock ticking the seconds away as she cried. Without nothing else to do with his hands, he caressed her hair from her head down her back in a constant pattern.

After a minute or so, she spoke again.

“Can we go outside?”

Instead of an answer he picked her up again and walked back out to the gardens surrounding the Manor.

She probably just wanted to breathe a little of fresh air, or as fresh as it could be in Gotham, but his feet carried him to a specific part of the gardens.

Once he found the tree he was looking for, he sat down against the trunk under the shade and placed her between his legs, her back to his chest, so she could sit the way she wanted or if she preferred to move around. She did turn a little to rest her ear on his chest.

“I like the sound of your heart.” She explained, despite him never asking.

He hummed, watching her hands on her lap fidgeting with her purse. She had apparently grabbed it and looped the strap over her shoulder before storming off the breakfast table.

“It’s strong and steady,” she continued talking, “like you.”

“I am anything but ‘steady’,” he huffed. “Now you know why I mentioned weird sleeping patterns and being unable to have a normal relationship.”

“Is this why you weren’t sure about the dating thing? Because of the vigilante stuff?”

He nodded, humming when he realized she wouldn’t see it. “I’m not reliable. Sometimes I have to go undercover for days, sometimes I have a mission that requires a lot of attention, sometimes I have barely time to sleep and eat something before I have to suit up and do it all over again.”

“And a relationship needs nurturing. I understand.”

Could she hear his heart breaking? This felt like A Conversation. Like the ones you have when something is about to end.

“I do want to try, though.”

His hands, which he had strategically placed at his sides to not crowd her, twitched with the need to touch her warmth.

“You do?”

She nodded. “I can understand where you come from. I used to live like that, back when— uh… Remember when I said I was involved in ‘family business’ back in my hometown?” She chuckled, looking up at him.

“You were a crime fighter.” What were the odds? At this point he wouldn’t be surprised if she had been an assassin all this time and they danced around each other like idiots.

“Nope. Not human crime, at least.”

“‘Human’ crime?”

“Ghosts. We fight ghosts. Or I used to.” She bit her lips. “Family business. Ghost hunting.”

“You traded being a ghost hunter for being an Arkham doctor?”

“I wanted a change! Don’t judge me.” She pouted, hiding her face on his chest again.

He kissed her hair, enjoying when she placed her hand close to her face to feel the vibrations of his chuckles.

“Do you— I mean… We still have to fix the scandal thing, and I don’t know what I’ll do about Arkham, but maybe, um,” she rubbed her cheek against him, sighing. “Do you want to try?”

He breathed in sharply.

“I mean, we could still be friends if it doesn’t work?” She continued. “We could even kiss if you want to, or meet up to watch movies or something and cuddle and stuff.”

“That sounds kinda like dating, though.”

She shook her head. “Dating requires compromise, lots of attention, and a shift in priorities. I would never try to get in the way of your, well, your other life.”

He couldn’t resist it anymore — he put his arms around her and slightly squeezed her against his body. She giggled.

He didn't know what to say. He understood where she came from, and agreed that things could get tricky; but he really didn't want to lose this. He didn't want to spend the rest of his life wondering what could have been, wondering if he had tried harder then it would have worked.

Anything he thought he could say sounded stupid in his mind. She deserved truthful words and not flimsy promises.

Suddenly, it came clear to him what he needed to say.

“If your feelings are not those of last night at Denny’s, tell me so at once. My affections and wishes have not changed, but one word from you will silence me forever.” She snorted, getting the reference immediately. Still, Jazz kept quiet and only looked up at him to gaze into his eyes as he recited Mr. Darcy’s sappiest dialogue from memory.

If, however, your feelings haven’t changed, I would have to tell you, you have bewitched me body and soul,” he licked his lips, knowing it was just the dialogue of that scene, but his voice still trembled a little when he continued, “and I love you.” She placed a hand on his cheek, her smile growing wider. “I never wish to be parted from you from this day on.”

In the silence that followed, he felt his heart trying to beat out of his chest, the noise deafening behind his ears. She didn’t say anything as she looked into his eyes, searching for something.

“That was super cheesy.”

He left out a breath he didn’t know he had been holding, laughing weakly. “Now it’s the part where you say my hands are cold or something and we get married.”

“Do you want to get married?” She lifted an eyebrow.

“I was joking. I don’t want to get married.”

“So you are saying you wouldn’t marry me.”

He groaned and let his head bonk against the tree trunk, any nervousness completely forgotten.

“Just kidding.” She laughed. “We don’t need to ever think about it. For now.”

“So you do want to marry me, then?”

If he wanted to get a raise from her, he failed at it. She just smirked and let her hand tangle in his curls. She said last night that she loved them. “Who knows. I’m interested in dating you first, though. As a trial run.”

He hummed, basking in the sensation of her nails softly scratching his scalp. He didn’t realize he had closed his eyes.

“Oh, this is the tree we climbed down yesterday.”

“Now you notice?” He opened one eye, but she was looking up at the balcony they jumped from to run away from the gala. It looked less magical under the sunlight.

“Well, I was kinda panicking to really notice it.”

“Feel better now?”

“Uh-huh,” she nodded, resuming the head scratches. He closed his eyes again, enjoying the attention. She shuffled a bit, maybe to get a better angle, and suddenly she stopped. “Oh right. Guess what I have in my purse?”

“Your phone?” He opened his eyes to find her fully facing him, kneeling between his folded legs, her attention on the purse as she looked for something in it.

“Nope, this!” She withdrew a small item, presenting it to him like it was a great finding.

He picked it up, trying to guess what it was. After deciphering the tiny lettering around the tube-like object, he smirked.

“Is this…?” He opened the tube, confirming that it was the lipstick she was wearing at the gala.

“I noticed you liked it.”

“Looked good on you.”

“I meant the taste.” Her cheeks were a bit red.

He nodded, twisting the tube to get a bit of the lipstick out. “Kissing you is always a delight, but the cherry flavor made it interesting.”

“So it wasn’t an excuse to kiss me back at the balcony?”

“I thought I said you looked pretty under the moonlight or some sappy shit like that.”

She rolled her eyes. “So romantic.”

“I’m just saying,” he started applying the lipstick on his lips, eyes fixed on hers, taunting her, “that I don’t need excuses to kiss you. Do you need them?”

It was creamy and warm from being under the sun, and the cherry flavor was just like he remembered it. He didn’t dwell on the sensation, focused on how she smiled wider at his obvious bait.

“Pink is definitely your color.” She said, cupping his head in her hands to look at his lips from different angles.

“Do you really think so?”

She tilted her head, leaning in a little just so their lips were barely touching. “Or maybe red, Mr. Hood.”

She was so close he almost had to cross his eyes to keep eye contact.

“So you figured it out?”

Their lips touched, finally, but she leaned back when he tried to kiss more properly. Damn tease. She combed back his hair, letting her nails softly scratch his scalp, earning a shiver from him.

“You were the one I managed to get less information on. After discarding the other options you were the one that matched Hood the most.”

“You were investigating us?”

She licked her lips, probably tasting the cherry.

“Side project.”

“You have a fucking murderboard dedicated to us?” He chuckled. At this point it was just funny. He was never bored with Jazz, she threw shit like this to him from absolutely nowhere — and he loved it so much.

“It was an interesting puzzle to solve!” He hands stopped their ministrations as she withdrew one hand to gesticulate as she tried to explain herself. “I wasn’t going to do anything about it, either way. I swe—!”

Her words were silenced by his lips. He couldn’t stop the giddiness at the situation. It was so absurd, everything was not how it was ‘supposed’ to go, but it was perfect in a strange way. They weren’t just two strangers at a gala, or two normal people kissing under a tree; hell, they weren’t even fully human by some standards. But kissing her was perfect, having his arms around her was perfect, her hands on the base of his neck was perfect.

When they parted, her cheeks were red and her lips stained pink from the lipstick. He carefully lifted a hand to push back a lock of hair that was in the way of her eyes. The teal shimmered green for a moment when his hand touched her cheek.

“You were right,” she said, a bit breathless. “The cherry makes it interesting.”

He hummed his agreement, letting her get comfortable and use his shoulders for leverage. Strange — he didn’t usually like being touched, and he thought it would be a problem since she was very touchy feely, but he didn’t mind it that much when she did it. Maybe it was because she usually made sure he was fine with her touch.

“Everything okay?”

He focused back on her. She was now on her knees, making him look up at her a little. With the way the stray rays of sunshine that sneaked past the tree leaves played with her hair, she was truly glowing in his eyes.

I love you, he had on the tip of his tongue, but chose to just nod and lean in a little to let her know he wanted to kiss again.

She obliged, grabbing him by the shoulders and softly pushing him back until he was completely against the tree. The parallels of the situation weren’t lost on him — last night their positions were reversed and he had been the one pushing her to the tree to kiss that lipstick off her lips.

She didn’t disappoint, though. Her kiss was first as tender and as light as always, but soon she took a breath and licked his lips to ask if she could take it further. He let her, he wouldn’t tell her no, lifting his hands to place them on her waist to seek more physical contact.

It was just like that other kiss shared under this same tree. She was dominating, but let him push her away if he so desired. This time there was a small difference, though; this time he wasn’t afraid of joining her and let his tongue follow hers, the cherry flavor encompassing their dance back to her mouth.

She did the small moan that signaled that he was doing something right, encouraging him to take the lead and press her body closer to his. His hands squeezed her waist a little, but Jazz wasn’t complaining; instead, she let out another soft moan that he swallowed in their kiss. Interesting.

He was warned about the risks of her teeth, though. Last night it had been a bit of a surprise to find out that her canines were a bit sharper than normal. Thankfully the cut on his tongue healed fast enough, and the one she accidentally did on his lip barely hurt at all, because she had been very self conscious about her fangs.

It was a liminal thing, she explained. Jason just found them hot, and told her exactly that. Her face became so red he thought she was going to faint.

They parted to take a breath, but kept their hands on each other. Her hands went to his hair to resume their appointed scratching task, making him shiver again.

With a sigh, Jason let his arms circle around her waist to pull her closer, the height difference allowing his head to fall on her chest and enjoy her heartbeat. It was a bit fast after the kiss, but strong. Alive. He understood why she liked to listen to his heart.

“We should head back.” Her voice was low, as if she didn’t want to break their little moment.

“Can’t we run away again?”

She chuckled, the feeling of her laugh against his cheek was as pleasant as the nails on his scalp.

“We already used that card once, I don’t think we can do it again.” Jazz patted his shoulder. “Also, I already messed up things with your dad and I don’t want him to hate me more.”

“I don’t care what he thinks about you.” His arms twitched a little around her waist.

“But I do,” she said, adding quickly before he could protest. “If I want to marry you I need to at least get along with your family.”

“I thought we weren’t even considering that for the moment?”

The scratches stopped. He moaned at the loss.

“I am not. But I meant it when I said I don’t want to get in the way.”

Jason felt a pinch in his chest at her words. She had insisted on that point a lot, and she was also the kind of person that planned ahead of time with the type of passion he was familiar with.

“Jason?” She asked, probably because he was getting tense.

He let her go, pushing her until they had enough distance between them to look her in the eye. Jazz was confused but cautious, her hands still on his person but with a lighter touch, waiting for him to confirm if he wanted her touch or not.

“Jazz, listen to me, and listen carefully,” she was listening, but he could see she was getting a bit scared at his words. “If you ever want to leave me, if you ever stop loving me, or I don’t make it worth your while or whatever, I’ll be fine. I mean, not fine-fine, but I would get it.”

She looked like she wanted to protest, but bit her lips closed and nodded at him to continue.

“But never break up with me because you feel like ‘you are in the way’. My family has had enough of that bullshit and I hate it so much.”

There was understanding in her eyes. “Self-sacrificing idiots with lack of communication skills? Feels familiar.” She complained about her brother pulling stunts like those.

It made him smile, but he needed to make her understand… She needed to know that it would crush him if she just up and left one day, even if it was ‘for his own good’.

“Promise me.”

Her eyes glowed green for a moment. “I promise. If something comes up we’ll have a conversation about it.”

He relaxed a little. Let’s see how that held up with time, he thought. She seemed to really understand where he was coming from, though.

“One last kiss for the road?” She asked.

The tension was completely gone when their lips touched again. They got this, whatever challenge dating brought their way.

Once they brushed the grass and dirt from their pants and were ready to face the music, he took her hand and guided her back to the dining room, this time from the kitchen door.

“Finally!” Danny was the first one to spot them. He didn’t look happy. At all.

“I see the dissection hasn't started so I’m still on time.”

“Har har.”

“We are not going to—”

“It’s a family joke,” Danny interrupted Tim, who blinked very slowly. That opened more follow up questions. “Don’t worry about it.”

Jason felt Dick elbow him, so he turned to see what he wanted. He found his brother biting back a knowing smirk as he pointed to the area below his lips, tapping the skin there. What the…

Oh.

Oh shit.

He rushed to wipe the remaining pink lipstick with his hand, but the damage was already done. Enough people had seen it and he wasn’t going to live this down.

Whatever.

“So,” Jazz sat down on the chair Danny had occupied before, since Damian apparently decided not to join them after the drama, and everyone at this side of the table was moved one seat over. “Have you explained everything?”

“Not everything,” Danny looked between Jason and his sister. “I wasn’t sure if you were going to explain to the loverboy here or just smooch—” He was interrupted, jumping when his foot was stepped on under the table. “Was that necessary?”

“Yes.” She wasn’t amused, her frown doing little to hide her red ears. “What have you said and what do I need to add?”

“‘I’m not a meta, I’m just a dead guy’?” Danny shrugged.

“That’s… vague.”

Jason looked at the others watching the siblings interact. There was a certain tension in the room, Jason knew Bruce wasn’t the only one about to shake them upside down for answers.

Tim cleared his throat and tapped the screen of his tablet. “You are Daniel James Fenton and Diana Jasmine Joan Fenton—”

“Diana Jasmine?”

“Don’t ask.”

Tim glared at the couple. “— children of Madeline and Jackson Fenton. Born and raised in a tiny town in the middle of Illinois called Amity Park. Parents dedicated their life to the investigation and science behind ghosts and how to contact and deal with them.”

“‘Deal’” Danny snorted.

“Ten years ago, they published a paper about their successful portal to another realm they concluded was where the ghosts came from.” He continued. “Shunned and ridiculed by the scientific community, they stopped their investigation and dipped into the weapon industry. Nowadays they sell weapon patents and original inventions, strangely enough, dedicated to storing food.” Tim ended his summary and looked at the siblings with a raised eyebrow.

Jazz sighed while Danny snickered.

“That’s the official version.” She finally said, somehow making Danny laugh harder. “After the portal they didn’t stop investigating ghosts, they just took a more, uh— direct approach.”

“It’s just a family joke, don’t worry about it.”

“They tortured ghosts?” Jason didn’t know what horrified him more, the idea or that the siblings seemed fine with it.

“At first, they tried. But local hero Danny Phantom thwarted every attempt!” She pumped her fist, like it was some kind of old timey superhero show jingle, but devoid of any of the energy it usually had.

All eyes went to Danny. “You are a superhero.” Tim said, but didn’t need confirmation.

He smiled cheekily. “I retired.”

“Also now our parents don’t dissect ghosts. Things changed a lot and we learned to adapt.” Jazz shrugged.

“You all became ghost hunters,” Jason said, now the pieces slowly making a picture.

Both siblings nodded and said: “Family business.”

“But why? Did the portal work? Why haven’t we heard anything about this?” Bruce leaned in, stealing Tim’s tablet to look at the pictures and the research he had compiled in so little time. “The League could have helped.”

Danny was shaking his head, all mirth gone from his face. “You couldn’t. Too dangerous. Ghosts can possess the living and I don’t really want to fight a possessed Superman.”

Bruce winced, knowing he was right.

“Then how did you deal with ghosts?” He asked.

The young man frowned at his hands placed on the table. “I… It was my responsibility, you know? I made the portal work and now they could come and go freely and—”

“It wasn’t your fault,” Jazz took one of her brother’s hands.

“I know that now, but back then I was just fourteen and I touched something I shouldn’t and I couldn’t tell anyone that I was dead—'' Danny took a deep breath to collect his thoughts. “I could deal with the ghosts better than anyone else not only because I was a ghost as well, but because I wouldn’t tear them apart to investigate what they were made of like my parents would.”

A few seconds ticked.

“Hold up, I think we need to unpack a few things there.” Dick tried to sound lighthearted, but there wasn’t anything positive in what Danny had said.

“Buddy, you have no idea what you got yourself into.”

Yeah, he was starting to see what he meant by that.

“I don't think it's a good idea to discuss things with an empty stomach.” Alfred, the godsend, arrived with a tray filled with breakfast goodies. Right, he hasn’t eaten anything since the mountain of pancakes at Denny’s.

“Thank you,” Jazz rushed to help him distribute the dishes filled with french toast around the table to those that hadn’t eaten yet — Jason, Danny and herself.

Danny jumped to eat. “Finally, some good fucking food.” He said with his mouth stuffed with delicious food. He jumped from another foot stomping. “Ow! Was that necessary!?”

“I thought I taught you some manners, young man.”

Danny made a mocking face at his sister, but still turned to the butler and nodded. “Thank you for the food, Mr. Pennyworth.”

The man fought to keep his smile under control. “Alfred is fine.” He nodded at everyone gathered, and walked out of the room to eavesdrop, probably.

Jason turned back to his french toasts and watched the Fentons devour the food like it was the last thing they did — Danny had forgotten all manners, but Jazz clinged to some as she inhaled the food at the same pace.

“It’s good, right?” Dick tried to make conversation.

“So good. I’m sorry Jazz but I don’t think I can go back to eating your cooking.” He said between bites. “Stop trying to kick me!”

“Stop saying stupid things, then.” She growled.

“Jay’s cooking is delicious, too,” Selina interrupted the starting argument, watching them with a soft smile, her face resting on her hands. “Alfred taught him personally.”

Danny opened his eyes wide, looking at the man. “Can I move in with you? It’ll be fun, I promise. Some dead guy quality time.”

“You abandon me so easily?” She lifted an eyebrow. “What happened to ‘I can go without food or sleep for weeks, Jazz, stop babying me’?”

“We still have to schedule that duel,” Jason shrugged, smirking when his girlfriend looked at him with raised eyebrows as Danny celebrated with a little ‘yes!’.

“Really?” She said.

“I can cook for you too, don’t worry.” Actually, the idea sounded very appealing. Why hadn’t he thought about it before? He could make it cute. Or maybe she wasn’t into big romantic gestures. He had to ask.

“As adorable as all of this is,” Bruce cleared his throat, “please explain what you said before.”

“Alright, so,” Danny swallowed what he had left, much more than was humanly possible to fit in a mouth, and breathed deeply. “The bullet points are: I died turning on the portal. Yes it hurt a lot, please don’t ask.” A few pairs of eyes turned to look at Jason instead. “I came back as a halfa, half alive, half dead, and got some sick new powers. I used those powers to battle evil ghosts and bring them back to the Ghost Zone—”

“— Where the ghosts live,” Jazz added, still finishing her last french toast.

Danny nodded. “Where the ghosts live, because my parents, who didn’t know I was a ghost too, would torture them to a second death. Eventually Jazz found out and helped me fight ghosts alongside my best friends. And then we told our parents, they took it well, decided to help and changed their ways. Happy ending.” He shrugged.

“And why are you in Gotham?” Wasn’t that the question? If there was a real threat of evil ghosts in their hometown, why were they here? Jazz said she left home to try being on her own, but with this new context…

“I followed my sister,” he pointed at her face with his thumb, she swatted his hand away. “She ‘renounced her heritage’ and hung the proverbial cape,” by his grin he said it on purpose, “and moved far enough from home to not be bothered by ghosts anymore.”

“That is so not what happened.”

“And what happened, Jazz?” He turned to look at her with a frown between his brows. “You just — I came back home one day and you were set on leaving.”

“I was tired! I had been doing the same thing since I was sixteen! I wanted to try something else.”

“And that ‘something else’ is dealing with living people that are just like ghosts. Yeah. Not buying it.”

Jazz looked like she wanted to keep arguing, but deflated. She subtly seeked Jason’s hand under the table, and he knew she was going to say another difficult thing to unpack.

“It was the liminality, Danny. I… When the changes started to happen I panicked. I thought I was going to die and I didn’t want to die regretting my life choices.”

Danny flinched like he had been slapped. “What?”

“It was logical. I was too contaminated already and I feared that if I stayed in Amity with such a high ectoplasm concentration—”

“You didn’t want to become a halfa?” Danny’s eyes started to water, green swirling into the blue with an alarming speed. Jason knew the others saw it too, because Bruce tensed.

“No! Danny, I swear it is not about that!” She jumped to hug her brother, “I was scared for a moment, but when I was finally here I knew I just needed time to do my own thing. I was going to come back to Amity, to you, but then the Observants happened and then the coronation happened and you were so busy and I was so busy and—”

“—and Mom and Dad took it so bad you didn’t want to come back either.” He melted in the hug. “They miss you, you know.”

“They miss us fighting together,” she rolled her eyes. “Ghost hunting is not a family bonding activity.”

Someone snorted.

Jason looked away from the sibling moment to find Tim looking very directly at his tablet, Dick controlling his expressions and Bruce trying not to look anybody in the eye.

“So your parents took the being dead thing better than Jazz giving up the cape?” Dick asked.

“Oh, they tried to dissect me at first. That I came back wrong, that they could cure me, that I was just possessed, you know.” He made a dismissive gesture with his hand.

Tim gave up pretending he was reading something on his tablet and looked at Bruce. The man was horrified, glancing between Danny and Jason, who smiled at him. It hurt a lot when Bruce said shit like that about him, back at the beginning, and seeing Bruce suffer from Danny’s tale was so validating.

“What happened next?” Selina was genuinely curious.

“Jazz went berserk, held them at gunpoint and made them choose. What was the thing you said? ‘Your children or your research, but you can’t have both’.” He leaned back on his chair. “It was amazing.”

Jason’s eyebrows went to his hairline.

“In my defense,” she started, pointedly looking at the table, “they had Danny strapped to a table and were ready to cut him open. I came back from school and found them in the basement and I just did what I had to.”

Feeling his heart beat faster and his face a bit red, Jason took her hands on his. “You protected your brother, that’s what matters.”

“So they chose you?” Bruce’s eyes were on their joined hands for a second, but he looked back at Danny.

“Unconditionally.” Danny’s smile was blinding. “Threw everything they had about ghosts away and started over. For me.”

“It still doesn't explain how you are here, in Gotham, and not back there protecting your city.” The question wasn’t judging, even for Bruce standards. Phantom had been in Gotham for a year and the world hadn't ended via ghost apocalypse.

“I am the Ghost King. I ordered them to stop coming to my city and rampage it.” Danny’s smile was all teeth. “And I'm on vacation visiting my sister, so any ass whooping has been canceled until further notice.”

Surprisingly, that wasn’t such a truth bomb. After all that messy retelling of their fucked up childhoods? They believed it — sure, Bruce would ask for details laters and maybe take it to the League, but it kinda made sense.

“Okay,” Bruce finally nodded. He looked at Jazz. “About Arkham.”

She tensed. “What about it.”

“You said you had research.”

“I do.”

Bruce wanted her to just hand it over, and Jazz probably knew it, and that was why she was not following him on purpose. Could he love her more? Not to sound like a highschooler, but in less than twelve hours he had seen so many sides of her and he loved every one of them.

“I’m not going to give it to you, I said I didn’t need Batman.”

“If this is a question of pride—”

Jazz was shaking her head. “This isn’t about pride—” She jumped from a kick under the table. “Danny, stop.”

“Then don’t lie.”

“Oh, shush you.” She kicked him back. “Yeah it’s my research and it was so hard to compile everything and I’m reluctant to let it go — but I have reasons why it is a bad idea for Batman to take care of Arkham.”

“I remember this rant.” Danny murmured.

“First, Batman doesn’t kill and that’s fact. Fear of retribution is a big part of why my plan works so well. Fear of being socially shunned, fear of losing money, fear of death.” She was looking directly at Bruce as she spoke. “I am an unknown, a newcomer to Gotham, and they don’t know what I am capable of doing to get what I want. Not that I would actually kill anybody —”

Danny fake coughed, earning another kick.

“— but they don’t know that. And I need that fear, that uncertainty, that they don’t know what I would do.”

Honestly? Jason wanted to kiss her on the mouth. Damn it that everyone was looking.

“And second?” Bruce had this look on his face, his ‘I don’t like this but I don’t have grounds to forbid it’ constipated face.

“Second, Batman is a symbol of the status quo of Gotham. There is a system, a way that things work, and any change could destroy the balance. If a new rogue comes up, Batman will be there to take everything back to how it should be.” She took a breath. Jason felt her hands were trembling a little, so he squeezed them to show his support. She smiled at him briefly.

“If an outsider reforms Arkham, it would be no problem — just another thing that Batman will eventually bring back into the balance, or maybe that’s part of how it should be, or maybe blame it all on the outsider and continue on with life. But, if Batman himself breaks the status quo, they will come for your blood.”

Bruce was listening. Amazing.

“How so?”

“Why only change Arkham? Why stop there? Why not fix the Narrows? And Crime Alley? Why not fix the housing problem? Why not end the rogues for good, if they can’t be cured in the new system?” Her smile was tired.. “The status quo works because nobody wants to change it. Problems become the usual when nobody tries to fix them. But try to fix one? Then you have to fix them all, or the symbol falls.”

She leaned back on her chair, satisfied with her rant. This was something she had given a lot of thought, Jason realized.

Danny leaned in and got his attention, making him lean too to see what he had to say.

His grin was devious when he fake-whispered. “This is why her favorite hero is Red Hood.”

“DANNY.” Unsatisfied with doing another kick, she chose to punch him on the shoulder this time. “I will fucking kill you.” She growled, but it was lost in how her face was completely red.

“You cannot kill me in a way that matters.” He snickered as he jumped back in his seat, dodging another punch. “He’s my favorite hero too, there’s no shame in that.”

Jazz probably answered something, but Jason’s mind was filled with static.

He knew he was some people’s favorite hero — Crime Alley’s kids were afraid of him but knew he would protect them, especially if they were homeless. Even in the dumb tabloids’ popularity surveys Red Hood was comfortably up in the list, so people liked him and what he was trying to do with the worst parts of the city. And apparently he had his own twitter fanclub?

He let his head fall into his arms over the table, knowing his face was red up to his ears.

He thought about Jazz’s murderboard, and how she said she had investigated him — sure, she investigated everyone trying to figure out their identities, but was going to take the fact that she looked into his work.

Did she like what she found? Did she agree? Was she appalled by the killing?

No. She had kissed him and said she wanted to date even after knowing who he was.

And he was her favorite hero.

“B, she’s right.”

“But she can’t go back, they’ll come for her.”

“After the scandal I don’t think I could hold as much power as I need,” Jazz was answering Bruce. “Unless we clear it all in a way that makes sure my relationship doesn’t have anything to do with the Reform.”

“Yeah, nice try about that.” Dick said.

“Yeah, people already believe it was all premeditated.”

“I’ll do it.”

All conversation stopped as he lifted his head.

“I’ll take care of it. Red Hood doesn’t have the limitations Batman does.”

“Jaybird, you promised not to kill people anymore.”

He smirked at his big brother, taking his girlfriend’s hand. “Yeah, but they don’t know that.” His smile turned genuine when he looked at Jazz. “We only need the fear of what I could do, right?”

She was beaming like a ray of sunshine. God, he could really kiss her right now.

"I would need to change a few things, but,” she played with her hair, eyes slightly unfocused but staying in his as she went over the plan in her head, “I think it can be done.”

“Perfect. Wanna discuss it over lunch?”

She focused back on him, her smile cheeky. “Is this a date, Mr. Hood?”

“If you want to,” he said with another smile. His eyes went to her curved lips, thinking about that romantic lunch date idea from earlier. “We can go back to my place after this.”

Jazz giggled, hands still playing with her hair. “You still have my dress and my other stuff, so...”

“I’m going to scrub my brain with bleach.” Danny’s murmur cut through their bubble.

The couple remembered they weren’t alone and jumped back, having leaned closer without realizing.

Only Selina and Cass, who had been silently following the conversation, looked ecstatic at them — Tim and Danny were not having a good time and looked about to make a run for it. Dick was shaking Bruce’s shoulder, murmuring “I told you, I told you” as if the man needed another pair of eyes to believe what was happening.

Jason cleared his throat. “We will first need all your intel, get rid of any digital evidence of your investigation—”

“I have everything on paper or stored in thumb drives. Nothing digital. Also, Danny helped me with covering my tracks.”

Danny made a peace sign, smirking. “Family business. Also my best friend helped. He’s a hacker, and very good.”

“Okay,” he nodded at the siblings, honestly impressed by their efficacy. It made him fall back into vigilante mode easier, too. “Then we need to go to your apartment and get everything.”

Her smile was mischievous. “No need!” She put her purse on the table and started rummaging through it. “I have everything a girl needs to carry in her bag. Phone, wallet, keys, lipstick,” as she listed them she took out the items, the lipstick earned him a little glance, “and a thumb drive with everything you need to bring the downfall of an institution!”

There it was, in the palm of her hand, a black thumb drive. Deceptively small, but that probably contained the worst the city had to offer. She offered it to him without fuss, showing how she trusted him with her work.

“Are you guys sure you don’t want to go back to crime fighting?”

The Fentons turned to look at Selina at the same time.

“Nah. I have King stuff to do.” Danny shrugged easily.

She nodded, turning to look at Jazz. “And you, dear? What are you going to do after all of this is over?”

Bruce gave the woman a warning look, apparently knowing where she was going with her question.

“I don’t know,” Jazz said, looking at her brother. “I was going to go back to Amity after settling things in Arkham and choosing someone to run the place fairly, but now I’m not sure.”

Danny’s eyes landed on Jason.

Oh. Right.

Now he got what she meant by not wanting to get in the way.

It was easy to forget she wasn’t a Gothamite, since she fit right in with the madness, but the city wasn’t her home the way it was his home. It didn’t call for her, it didn't need her to stay. Jazz didn’t really have any roots in Gotham. Until now.

“You want to stay.” The younger Fenton told his sister, eyes still on Jason. He didn’t look mad.

“I really liked my job at Arkham.”

Danny nodded, taking her hands in his. “You can always accept my offer, Jazzy. I still think ‘The Warden’ is a cool title for you.”

“It’s silly.”

“If I have to endure silly titles I’m taking you down with me.”

This made her chuckle. “I’ll think about it.” She squeezed his hands. “But I think I’ll stay for a while and figure out what I want to do next.”

“Sure.”

“Fantastic!” Selina had this dangerous glint in her eyes, like when she found a target she really wanted to steal. Uh oh. “Next question: if the thing with Jason doesn’t work out would you consider being my daughter?”

Jason rolled his eyes, complaining with a little “hey”.

“Jesus christ.” Tim facepalmed.

Bruce was massaging his temples. “Selina, dear—”

“Oh hush, you already have too many children. Let me have at least one of my own.”

“Um, thanks for the offer? But I already have parents? Alive ones? Also, I’m an adult?”

“My apprentice, then?”

Jazz looked confused for a few seconds and then opened her eyes real wide. “Holy shit, you are Catwoman.”

“I am, dear.” She leaned further into the table, set on her objective. “But focus, I have follow up questions: can you fight in heels and do you know how to use a whip?”

“Selina, no.”

“Actually…”

“No shit?” Jason looked away from Selina to see if his girlfriend was telling the truth. She was, since she was getting a bit red and Danny started cackling.

“The heels part not really—”

“Your suit did have a bit of a heel, though.”

“It didn’t? It was boots.”

“Boots with a heel, yeah.”

“And the whip?” Tim was looking between Jason and Jazz with a tiny smirk. He didn’t give him the satisfaction of humoring the implication.

“I did use a version of a whip that traps ghosts. Very useful when they try to fly away.” She answered with a shrug.

“I have a video, if you wanna see her in action.”

“Video?” This was news for Jazz.

“Video!” Danny rushed to take out his phone, searched for a video in his gallery app and tapped play.

One by one, everyone gathered on this side of the table to see the screen as it showed Phantom exchanging punches with a floating woman with short red hair. The woman — ghost? — bared her pointed teeth and glared at the younger Danny as she flew further up to get enough distance to shoot green lasers from her fists.

“How did you get this?”

“Wes. This is from his creepy stalker phase.”

Jazz snorted.

From outside the frame, a new ghost jumped into the fight, slamming against Danny’s side and launching him to the ground.

“I need help over here!” Danny in the video screamed, struggling to take down the ghost woman and the new ghost, a green panther, at the same time.

“On it!” That was Jazz’s voice.

The camera panned in her direction and there she was, sliding over an abandoned car and running towards the fight. She was wearing a skintight black and white suit, similar to Phantom’s, but she had added knee pads and sturdier looking boots and gloves. On her waist she had a utility belt with weapons strapped to it.

“Oh, I remember this fight — we were testing the new Fenton Peeler 2.0.” Jazz commented, her eyes kind of wistful as she watched her past self march towards danger.

She did miss it. He wondered if she really wanted to go back despite saying she preferred to stay in Gotham.

“Fenton Peeler?” He asked.

“Kind of an armored suit.”

“Armored suit?”

“Watch.”

Indeed, once she was close enough to the pouncing panther, she hit a button on her glove and some kind of armor started unfolding up her arms and feet. It was calculated, because with a few powerful leaps, she intercepted the panther in the air just in time to have the full silver armor covering her entire body.

Both ghost panther and human rolled to the floor and started wrestling. From where this supposed ‘Wes’ was filming it was difficult to discern who was winning; but she was holding her own and catching the big animal every time it tried to weasel out of her grip.

Only took one time she couldn’t keep it down and the creature was free, finally deciding that going after Danny wasn’t worth it either and leaping away from the fight, turning into an enormous bird mid-flight.

Jazz in the video hit her glove again and as the suit retreated back to its place, she took the whip on her waist and, in a feat of skill, hit her mark and tangled the ghost and its wings in the weird glowing weapon. She dragged the bird down back to her, smashing its head on her knee. The ghost was out cold.

“Danny!” Past-Jazz extended a hand and her brother tossed an object to her. She did something with it and the ghost was warped into the object.

Danny paused the video.

Selina was vibrating as she placed her hands on Jazz’s shoulders. “Are you really sure you don’t want to go back to that?” She pointed at the paused video with her chin.

“Selina, stop.” Bruce wasn’t amused, despite looking at the screen with interest.

“No, it’s okay,” Jazz was looking at the phone, eyes still a bit lost in the memories, “sometimes I do want to. Hard not to when is the only thing you have known.”

“Yeah, Mom and Dad wouldn’t win many ‘parent of the year’ awards.” Danny’s expression was sad, but guarded. Old wounds, probably.

Jazz closed her eyes, took a deep breath, and exhaled slowly. Jason didn’t need to ask — she had explained, vaguely enough to keep all these secrets safe, that the neglect ran deep in her childhood. That Danny forgave them too easily, that her parents were trying to be better but that ignoring the damage was not the solution either.

“I’ve been doing this since I was sixteen.” She had said.

She had to point a gun to her parents to make them see that they were hurting their own son.

“Do you have more videos?” Jason asked Danny, trying to lift the mood a little and distract her from being sad.

He accepted his olive branch and hit play, the video resuming and this time showing another fight. There was now an older woman with short red head fighting alongside the siblings.

“That’s Mom.” Jazz whispered to him.

Her fighting style was familiar to all the bats — martial arts and proficiency with a bo staff, the woman jumped around and knocked out ghosts with powerful kicks, a level of control of her body that could only be achieved through years of training.

Suddenly, what could only be called a tank ran through the ghost the woman was fighting. She didn’t even flinch.

“And the one driving is Dad.” Danny snorted.

“What’s with the tank?” Dick asked.

“Family van, the Fenton Assault Vehicle, heavily modified by my parents.”

“Imagine going camping in that.” Danny didn’t look amused, probably speaking from experience.

The video montage continued, and Danny and Jazz shared the stories behind each fight. In some they were with their parents; in some the ‘B-team’, aka Danny’s friends, were there for back-up; in some it was just the two siblings against the next ghost threat.

They were too young to fight like they did. Jazz showed a proficiency in weaponry that an eighteen year old shouldn’t have, Danny showed a pain tolerance that was very unnerving in such a small body. They were good, especially in the videos that showed them older and with better equipment, but they shouldn’t have fought the fights of the adults in the first place.

Soon after, Danny put on more goofy videos to lighten the mood. Training montages and fails; one time Jazz hit her face when the recoil of her new rifle was stronger than expected, one time Danny was slammed to a building so hard he came back out dizzy and forgot how to fly, one time the bickering of the siblings made a giant ghost dragon find their hiding spot.

They were watching a video of Jazz trying a new move her mom was teaching her, when the door to the dining room was slammed open.

Duke was there, dropping his duffle bag to his feet. “I leave for ONE WEEK and Jason has a girlfriend?” He said, glaring at the group still gathered around Danny’s phone. He started blinking fast, shielding his eyes as if he were looking at the sun. “And why is there a glowing person sitting at the table?”

“Oops?” Danny smiled apologetically and did something about it, because Duke could now uncover his eyes.

“Dude, who are you and why is there a floating crown over your head?”

Jazz let her head fall on Jason’s shoulder, sighing.

“Okay, I yield,” she whispered to him as the others rushed to explain, “can we run away now?”

Jason sneakily kissed her hair and took her hand, taking advantage of the confusion to sneak away from the others. Only Danny saw them leave, narrowing his eyes for a second before smiling at the duo. He waved them goodbye.

They were giggling as they ran hand in hand through the corridors of the Manor, just like last night, this time with less formal clothes and without heels to ditch on the way.

Jason took her up some stairs and down a hall to Bruce’s studio.

“Through the balcony again?” She asked, a little short of breath.

He smiled. “Nope.” He guided her to the grandfather clock, eyeing the desk and considering making out with her over Bruce’s precious mahogany fancy desk. Alas, they had a few minutes before the other started going after them. “We are stealing a bike.”

She was confused for a moment, but once Jason put the clock hands in the correct position and the door to the elevator that went down the Batcave opened, she made the connection.

“Isn’t it a bit early in our relationship to take me to the Cave?”

“We are not going for a tour, but we can revisit that another time,” they walked in the elevator still hand in hand. As it went down, he couldn’t resist finally touching her face and combing back a few stray locks of her red hair. “It isn’t like you don't know enough already. And it’s a matter of time before the old man or the cat lady decide to train you.”

The elevator got to the Cave, the doors opened.

“Do you think I should accept her offer?” She asked as they walked out, her eyes on his.

“While I think you could totally pull off the sexy catsuit aesthetics,” she snorted, “and I think you could really be a good crime fighter… It’s really up to you. If you want to do it, do it. If you want to pursue your career at Arkham, do it.”

He had the feeling she understood this kind of life was something you needed to choose, not be pushed into it. But he needed to say it anyway.

“Why not both?” She tilted her head.

“You could,” he shrugged, “if you want to. Just keep in mind that having a day job and a night job will be taxing.”

She pondered his words and nodded. “Thank you.”

“Just know that I support you either way.”

“I know.” She cupped his face, pulling him down a little.

“Just wanted to make it clear that I’m a supportive boyfriend and that stuff.”

“I know,” she got on the tip of her toes and kissed him. “Let’s go back to your place and go over my plans for Arkham.” She whispered against his lips.

“You sure know how to romance a guy.”

“You can also show me your sword collection?” She patted his cheek.

His face burned a little. “Is that a—” Before he could make a fool of himself and ask if that was an euphemism for sex, the elevator got back to life and started going up.

They looked at each other.

“Time to run.”

She nodded her agreement.

He guided her towards the bike he had in mind, making a brief stop to pick up the keys, and quickly turned it on just in time to hear Bruce and the others calling their names from the elevator.

“Go, go, go.”

They put on the helmets and drove away like bats out of hell. Pun intended.

Back to Main Archive

Back to Danny Phantom Archive

Do you like my stuff? Buy me a Ko-fi!

#danny phantom #batman dc #danny phantom fanfiction #jazz fenton #jasmine fenton #jason todd #jazz x jason #anger management #jazz/jason #dp x dc #dance with me #anger management ship

300 notes · View notes